Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/846

Rh Was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November II, 1846, and was thirty-two years of age when her famous story, "The Leavenworth Case" was published. Her father was a famous lawyer, and from him she is supposed to have gained the knowledge which she had in handling the details of this story. It was questioned for some time, although her maiden name, Anna Katharine Green, was signed to the story, whether it was possible that this story could have been written by a woman. She was a graduate of the Ripley Female College in Poultney, Vermont, and received the degree of B.A. In her early days she wrote poems, but her fame has come from her detective stories. "The Affair Next Door," "The Filigree Ball," and other stories from her pen are well known. In November, 1884, she became Mrs. Charles Rohlfs.

Miss Seawell's uncle was an officer in the United States navy before the Civil War, and served in the Confederate Army with distinction during the entire war. From him she heard the tales of our early navy which gave her inspiration to write her nautical sketches. Some of these are "Decatur and Somers," "Paul Jones," "Midshipman Paulding," "Quarter-deck," "Fo'c'sle," and "Little Jarvis," the latter winning the prize of five hundred dollars for the best story for boys offered by the Youths' Companion, in 1890. She was a constant reader of Shakespeare, Rousseau and other writers. Byron, Shelley, Thackeray, Macaulay, Jane Austen, Boswell's "Johnson" all formed a part of her home education. In 1895, she received a prize of $3,000 from the New York Herald for the best novelette, "The Sprightly Romance of Marsac." Her "Maid Marian" is a well-known and an amusing story of the Knickerbocker element of New York.

Among the foremost of American writers is Amelia Barr. She was born in Ulverston, Lancashire, England, in 183 1. Her maiden name was Amelia Edith Huddleston. Her father was the Reverend Doctor William Henry Huddleston, and her first introduction into the literary field was when she served as a reader to her father. She was educated in Glasgow and in 1850 married Robert Barr, a Scotchman, and four years later they came to this country. They made their residence in several states, in New York, the South and West, finally settling in Austin, Texas. In 1867, the yellow fever was epidemic in Austin. Mr. Barr became famous through his work among the Indians and white settlers of this city. Doctors and nurses dying on all sides, he gave up his life in his unselfish devotion to poor suffering humanity. Mrs. Barr lost not only her husband but three sons in this terrible epidemic, and after it was over she returned to New York City. Her first literary venture was brought out through the kind personal interest of the editor of the New York Ledger, Mr. Robert Bonner, and was a story published in the Christian Union. She did all kinds of literary work, wrote