1850–1943

Introduction

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Born: Feb­ru­ary 27, 1850, Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

Died: Jan­ua­ry 14, 1943, Gar­din­er, Maine.

Buried: Christ Church Ce­me­te­ry, Gar­din­er, Maine.

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Biography

Laura was the daugh­ter of Ju­lia Ward Howe and Sam­uel Grid­ley Howe, an ab­o­li­tion­ist and found­er of the Per­kins In­sti­tu­tion and Mas­sa­chu­setts School for the Blind. Sam­uel’s fa­mous pu­pil Lau­ra Dew­ey Lynn Bridg­man was Laur­a’s name­sake.

In 1871, Lau­ra mar­ried Hen­ry Rich­ards. In 1876, he ac­cept­ed a man­age­ment po­si­tion at his fa­mi­ly’s pa­per mill at Gar­din­er, Maine, where the cou­ple moved with their three child­ren. An el­e­ment­a­ry school in Gar­din­er was named af­ter her.

Works

In 1917, Laura won a Pul­itz­er Prize for Ju­lia Ward Howe, 1819–1910, a bio­gra­phy she co-wrote with her sis­ter, Maud Howe El­li­ott.

Her child­ren’s book Tir­ra Lir­ra won the Lew­is Car­roll Shelf Award in 1959.

Her oth­er works in­clude:

Sources

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