SOURCE: "Lydia Maria Child," in Daughters of the Puritans: A Group of Brief Biographies, Books for Libraries Press, Inc., 1905, pp. 79-119.

In the following excerpt, Beach provides an overview of Child's life and career.

In the second quarter of the nineteenth century, few names in American literature were more conspicuous than that of Lydia Maria Child, and among those few, if we except that of Miss Sedgwick, there was certainly no woman's name. Speaking with that studied reserve which became its dignity, the North American Review said of her:

We are not sure that any woman of our country could outrank Mrs. Child. This lady has been before the public as an author with much success. And she well deserves it, for in all her works, nothing can be found which does not commend itself by its tone of healthy morality and good sense. Few female writers if...