Rita

<p>About the Author:</p><p></p><p>Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27 1850 - January 14 1943) was an American writer. She wrote more than 90 books including biographies poetry and several for children. One well-known children's poem is her literary nonsense verse Eletelephony.</p><p></p><p>Laura Elizabeth Howe was born in Boston Massachusetts on February 27 1850. Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe an abolitionist and the founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. She was named after his famous deaf-blind pupil Laura Bridgman. Her mother Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.</p><p></p><p>In 1871 Laura married Henry Richards. He would accept a management position in 1876 at his family's paper mill at Gardiner Maine where the couple moved with their three children. In 1917 Laura won a Pulitzer Prize for Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910 a biography which she co-authored with her sisters Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Hall.</p><p></p><p>She died on January 14 1943 at Gardiner Maine 44 days before her 93rd birthday.</p><p></p><p>A pre-kindergarten-to-fifth-grade elementary school in Gardiner Maine bears her name. Her children's book Tirra Lirra won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1959. Her home in Gardiner the Laura E. Richards House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p><p></p><p>Richards contributed poetry to St. Nicholas Magazine. (wikipedia.org)</p><p></p>