Fernley House

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (1850-1943) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a high-profile family. During her life, she wrote over 90 books, including children's, biographies, poetry, and others. A well-known children's poem for which she is noted is the literary nonsense verse Eletelephony. In 1917, she won a Pulitzer Prize for The Life of Julia Ward Howe, a biography, which she coauthored with her sister, Maud Howe Elliott. Among her most famous works are: Queen Hildegarde (1889), Captain January (1890), Melody (1893), Marie (1894), Hildegarde's Neighbors (1895), Nautilus (1895), Three Margarets (1897), Geoffrey Strong (1901), The Green Satin Gown (1903) and The Silver Crown: Another Book of Fables (1906).