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SUSAN COOLIDGE |
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SUSAN COOLIDGE |
| Born in
Cleveland, Ohio and spent much of her childhood in New
Haven, Connecticut. Her father’s family was closely
connected with Yale University and at various times three
Woolseys served as its president. During the Civil War
Sarah worked as a nurse and then began to write
prolifically. Her first children’s book, The
New-Year’s Bargain (1871), is a collection of
stories told to two children, Thekla and Max, by each of
the twelve months of the year, who are introduced to them
by Father Time. It was published with much success by
Roberts Brothers of Boston, whose chief editor Thomas
Niles had already guided Louisa M. Alcott to success with
Little Women. She wrote What Katy Did
(1872) and What Katy Did at School (1873)
and then produced a number of collections of short
stories, many of which first appeared in the magazine St
Nicholas. Her later full-length children’s
novels include Eyebright (1879) and A Guernsey
Lily (1880), suggested by a visit to the Channel
Islands. She returned to the exploits of the Carr family
with What Katy Did Next (1886), which describes a
tour of Europe, Clover (1888) and In the High
Valley (1890). Besides writing children’s books,
Sarah Woolsey, who never married, edited the
correspondence of Fanny Burney and Jane Austen, as well
as publishing several volumes of her own verse. As a child, Sarah Woolsey was notably tall, quick-witted, and impatient, like her heroine Katy Carr. Her younger sisters Jane, Elizabeth, and Theodora provided the models for Katy’s sisters Clover, Elsie, and Joanna, while her brother William and an orphaned cousin Theodorus became Phil and Dorry in the stories of the Carr family. Bibliographical information has been assembled from several sources and may not be complete.
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