Harriet Lummis Smith

Harriet Lummis Smith
Born(1866-11-29)November 29, 1866
Auburndale, Massachusetts
DiedMay 9, 1947(1947-05-09) (aged 80)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
OccupationWriter (novelist)
NationalityAmerican
Period20th century
GenreRomance, Pollyanna
Spouse
William M. Smith
​
(m. 1905)​

Harriet Lummis Smith (November 29, 1866 – May 9, 1947) was an American novelist and the first African-American teacher in Boston Public Schools.

Early life and education

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Harriet Lummis was born in Auburndale, Massachusetts, on November 29, 1866. Her father, Henry Lummis, was a clergyman. Her mother was Jennie Brewster.[1] Smith had a half-brother, Charles Fletcher Lummis, by a previous marriage of her father. Her parents moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where her father accepted a teaching post at Lawrence College. She attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated in 1886.

Career

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In 1890, she became Boston Public Schools first Black teacher where she taught mathematics and Latin in Boston Public Schools until 1917[2] before turning to writing full time after a publisher said she was "wasting her time teaching."[3] She began writing for newspapers and magazines as a young woman. Due to the popularity of the Pollyanna series by Eleanor Porter her publisher recruited Smith to continue the series after Porter's death. She wrote four more books for the series with such titles as Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms and Pollyanna's Debt of Honor. None of the books achieved the same popularity as Porter's work and all have since gone out of print.[4]

Harriet Lummis Smith: The Uncertain Glory, cover by Horace Weston Taylor, published in Boston, 1926

She was a member of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore and was made president in 1915.[3] She married William M. Smith in 1905. She lived in Chicago, Baltimore and eventually Philadelphia, where she died in 1947.[5]

Works

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  • The Reputation of the Bella B. (1909)[6]
  • Peggy Raymond's Success; or, The Girls Of Friendly Terrace (1912)[7]
  • Peggy Raymond's Vacation; or, Friendly Terrace Transplanted (1913)[6]
  • Peggy Raymond's School Days; or, Old Girls And New (1916)[6]
  • Other People's Business: The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale (1916)[7]
  • Peggy Raymond At 'The Poplars' (1920)[7]
  • The Friendly Terrace Quartette (1920)[6]
  • Agatha's Aunt (1920)[7]
  • Peggy Raymond's Way; or, Blossom Time At Friendly Terrace (1922)[7]
  • Pollyanna Of The Orange Blossoms (1924)[6]
  • Pollyanna's Jewels (1925)[6]
  • The Uncertain Glory (1926)[6]
  • Pollyanna's Debt Of Honor (1927)[6]
  • Pat And Pal (1928)[6]
  • Pollyanna's Western Adventure (1929)[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Massachusetts Births, 1841–1915". Massachusetts Archives, Boston. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  2. ^ Hayden, Robert C. (1991). African-Americans in Boston : more than 350 years. Boston Public Library. Boston : Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston.
  3. ^ a b Flink, Jonathan (February 25, 2018). "Harriet L. Smith: A "Conspicuous Woman Writer"". The Aperio log: Reading Women, Writing Women in Baltimore, 1890-1920.
  4. ^ Tom Burns, ed. (2005). "Pollyanna: The Glad Book". Children's Literature Review. 110. Gale.
  5. ^ Who Was Who in America. Vol. 2. Chicago, U.S.: The A. N. Marquis Co. 1950. p. 495.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Author – Harriet Lummis SMITH". Author and Book Info.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Harriet L. Smith (Smith, Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis)) | The Online Books Page". onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
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