Laura E. Richards
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.
Also recorded as Laura Elizabeth Howe · Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards · Laura Elizabeth Richards
Laura E. Richards

Reynolds · The Critic · Public domain
- Name
- Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
- Born
- 27 February 1850
- Birthplace
- Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Died
- 14 January 1943
- Place of death
- Gardiner, Maine, U.S.
- Spouse
- Henry Richards
- Awards
- 1917 Pulitzer Prize
- Birth Name
- Laura Elizabeth Howe Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27, 1850 – January 14, 1943) was an American writer.
- Full name
- Laura Elizabeth Howe.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- writer, biographer and poet.
- Honours
- Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
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Documentary summary
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.
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Laura E. Richards (1850–1943) was an American biographer, poet and writer. Born Laura Elizabeth Howe in Boston, the biographer died in Gardiner.
Languages used include English. Laura E. Richards received Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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wikidata · Q6498881 · wikipedia · Laura E. Richards
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards • Born — 27 February 1850 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 14 January 1943 • Place of death — Gardiner, Maine, U.S. • Relatives — * Samuel Gridley Howe (father) • Julia Ward Howe (mother) • Maud Howe Elliott (sister) • Florence Howe Hall (sister) • Julia R. Anagnos (sister) • Henry Marion Howe (brother) • Children — 7 (Alice Maud, Rosalind, Henry Howe, Maud, John, Laura Elizabeth) • Spouse — Henry Richards • Awards — 1917 Pulitzer Prize • Birth Name — Laura Elizabeth Howe 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.
Biography
Biography
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". 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. She created the boy's club Howe Club in 1886 (which lasted approximately 25 years), and then got involved in many local education projects. She died on January 14, 1943, at Gardiner, Maine, 44 days before her 93rd birthday.
Works
Works
Richards contributed poetry to St. Nicholas Magazine.
Biographies
Biographies
• Letter and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe (Vol. I: 1906, Vol. II: 1909) • Florence Nightingale: Angel of the Crimea (1909) • Two Noble Lives: Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe (1911) • Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 (1915) • Elizabeth Fry, the Angel of the Prisons (1916) • Abigail Adams and Her Times (1917) • Joan of Arc (1919) • Laura Bridgman: The Story of an Opened Door (1928) • Stepping Westward (1931)
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
Richards was recorded at birth as Laura Elizabeth Howe. The authorities additionally record the headings Laura Elizabeth Howe, Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards and Laura Elizabeth Richards. Her recorded language was English. She was the child of Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1850
Laura E. Richards born at Boston.
1943
Laura E. Richards died at Gardiner.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Boston.
Birth place
Gardiner.
Death place
Other books
• Baby's Rhyme Book (1878) • Babyhood: Rhymes and Stories, Pictures and Silhouettes for Our Little Ones (1878) • Baby's Story Book (1878) • Five Mice in a Mouse Trap (1880) • The Little Tyrant (1880) • Our Baby's Favorite (1881) • Sketches and Scraps (1881) • Baby Ways (1881) • The Joyous Story of Toto (1885) • Beauty and the Beast (retelling, 1886) • Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet (1886) • Hop o' My Thumb (retelling, 1886) • Kaspar Kroak's Kaleidoscope (1886) • L.E.R. (privately printed, 1886) • Tell-Tale from Hill and Dale (1886) • Toto's Merry Winter (1887) • Julia Ward Howe Birthday-Book (1889) • In My Nursery (1890) • Captain January (in 1936 made into a movie with Shirley Temple) (1891) • Star Bright (Captain January sequel, 1927) • The Hildegarde Series • Queen Hildegarde (1889) • Hildegarde's Holiday (1891) • Hildegarde's Home (1892) • Hildegarde's Neighbors (1895) • Hildegarde's Harvest (1897) • The Melody Series • Melody (1893) • Marie (1894) • Bethsada Pool (1895) • Rosin the Beau (1898) • The Margaret Series • Three Margarets (1897) • Margaret Montfort (1898) • Peggy (2025) • Rita (1900) • Fernley House (1901) • The Merryweathers (1904) • Glimpses of the French Court (1893) • When I Was Your Age (1893) • Narcissa, or the Road to Rome (1894) • Five Minute Stories (1895) • Jim of Hellas, or In Durance Vile (1895) • Nautilus (1895) • Isla Heron (1896) • "Some Say" and Neighbors in Cyrus (1896) • The Social Possibilities of a Country Town (1897) • Love and Rocks (1898) • Chop-Chin and the Golden Dragon (1899) • Quicksilver Sue (1899) • The Golden-Breasted Kootoo (1899) • Sundown Songs (1899) • For Tommy and Other Stories (1900) • Snow-White, or The House in the Wood (1900) • Geoffrey Strong (1901) • Mrs. Tree (1902) • The Hurdy-Gurdy (1902) • More Five Minute Stories (1903) • The Golden Windows (1903) illustrated by Arthur E. Becher • The Green Satin Gown (1903) • The Tree in the City (1903) • Mrs. Tree's Will (1905) • The Armstrongs (1905) • The Piccolo (1906) • The Silver Crown, Another Book of Fables (1906) • At Gregory's House (1907) • Grandmother, the Story of a Life that Never was Lived (1907) • Ten Ghost Stories (1907) • The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories (1908) • The Wooing of Calvin Parks (1908) • A Happy Little Time (1910) • Up to Calvin's (1910) • On Board the Mary Sands (1911) • Jolly Jingles (1912) • Miss Jimmy (1913) • The Little Master (1913) • Three Minute Stories (1914) • The Pig Brother Play-Book (1915) • Fairy Operettas (1916) • Pippin, a Wandering Flame (1917) • A Daughter of Jehu (1918) • To Arms! Songs of the Great War (1918) • Honor Bright: A Story for Girls (1920) • In Blessed Cyrus (1921) • The Squire (1923) • Acting Charades (1924) • Seven Oriental Operettas (1924) • Honor Bright's New Adventure (1925) • Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New (1932) • Merry-Go-Round: New Rhymes and Old (1935) • E. A. R. (1936) • Please! Rhymes of Protest (1936) • Harry in England (1937) • I Have a Song to Sing You (1938) • The Hottentot and Other Ditties (1939) • What Shall the Children Read (1939) • Laura E. Richards and Gardiner (a compilation of poems and articles, 1939)
Legacy
A pre-kindergarten-to-second-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, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places from 1979 until 2024, when it was delisted after a fire on December 24, 2022, resulted in the home needing to be demolished for safety reasons.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Laura E. Richards”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q6498881: Laura E. Richards
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Hall, Donald, The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems, page 34, Oxford University Press, 1999
- 2.Mrs. Richards Is 90. Daughter of Julia Ward Howe Honored in Maine. New York Times. Associated Press. February 28, 1940.
- 3.Trent, James W. The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-century American Reform. University of Massachusetts Press. 180. 2012. 978-1558499591.
- 4.Laura E. Richards. www.readseries.com.
- 5.Laura E. Richards' New Book, The Golden Windows. Boston Evening Transcript. 18. December 2, 1903.
- 6.Little, Brown and Company. Tirra Lirra Rhymes Old And New. 1955.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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