Harriette Newell Woods Baker

Harriette Newell Woods Baker (pen names Mrs. Madeline Leslie and Aunt Hattie; Woods; August 19, 1815 – April 26, 1893) was an American author of books for children, and editor. Her career as an author began when she was about 30 years old. She devoted herself successfully to novels; but after about 15 years, she wrote popular religious literature. Her most famous book, Tim, the Scissors Grinder, sold half a million copies, and was translated into several languages. Baker published about 200 moral and religious tales under the pen name "Mrs. Madeline Leslie". She also wrote under her own name or initials, and under pseudonym "Aunt Hattie". She wrote chiefly for the young, and was still writing in 1893 when she died.

Early life and education Harriette Newell Woods was born in Andover, Massachusetts on August 19, 1815 to Leonard Woods and Abigail Wheeler. She was one of the many children who were named after Harriet Newell, one of the first American missionaries. She was baptized on December 10, 1815 in Theological Seminary Church, which is now Philips Academy in Andover. Her father was the founder of Andover Theological Seminary and a friend of the polymath poet Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. She was called "Hatty" during her younger years. According to an account from her father, she nearly died of typhoid fever when she was about two years old.

When she was a child, her family had a house guest, William Schauffler, a German Jew who was sent to her father's care for his theological education. He remained in Andover for several years and most of the time in the Woods' house. Harriette noticed Schauffler had a grey overcoat that was too small for him and that he was shivering in the cold. This incident inspired her to form a sewing society with her Sunday School classmate, Elizabeth Stuart, and earn money to buy a cloak for Schauffler.

After the sewing society, she and Stuart formed a literary society, which they named "The Fireside" with them being the only members. They met on alternate Wednesdays on which occasions they read a composition, a simple story, and discussed the styles with each other. This was before she published her work for the first time when she was eleven years old. She enclosed her short story to Deacon Nathaniel Willis with a note authorizing him to print it in his newspaper, The Youth’s Companion if he wished. She then received a for a short story to The Youth's Companion and The Puritan, the Congregational paper of that time. She provided other contributions, from time to time, without informing the editor of her age.

On June 17, 1829, when Baker was nearly fourteen, she, together with four sisters and a cousin, Almira Woods, set off for Abbot Female Seminary, the new academy founded by Mrs. Nehemiah Abbott, She attended it during its first year of existence, though age fifteen. She then removed to an academy in Catskill, New York, where her eldest sister, Mary G. W. Smith, lived. After this, she studied under the instruction of private tutors in mathematics, history, and philosophy.

Career At the age of 20, she married Rev. Abijah Richardson Baker, D. D., who was then a teacher in the Phillips Academy at Andover. She published during her residence in Medford, Massachusetts three small volumes, The String of Pearls, Louise Merton, and Frank Herbert. Of the second of these, the proof-reader in the office where it was printed, said: "I become so interested in the story that I forget to make the proper correction of typographical errors.” Her duties as a clergyman's wife and mother of five sons prevented her from realizing ambition further except for occasional articles.

In 1850, she removed to the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, where her husband was pastor of the Central Church. In Brooklyn, she became greatly interested in a large sewing class in Charles' parish where she taught the class how to knit upon her son's request.

She had a daughter, Mollie, and five sons, four of whom were Episcopal clergymen: Dr. George Baker, rector of St. Luke's Hospital, New York; Dr. Charles E. Baker of the Church of the Messiah; and Dr. Frank Woods Baker and Dr. Walter A. Baker of Cincinnati. The non-clergy son, William Baker, M.D., was a Professor of Gynecology at Harvard University.

In late years, a new generation appeared, which was somewhat out of touch with the spirit of Baker's writings., as she was better known in the older literary circle of the US. Her literary tastes and keen zest for the study of human character and action remained with her even in later years. Possessing the Macaulayan faculty of plucking the very heart out of a book in a space of time that for others would hardly more than suffice for turning its pages, she found in reading an unfailing delight. She was reading Victor Hugo's novels this week at the rate of a book a day, and on the evening previous to her death held an animated conversation with her son, Dr. Charles E. Baker, about one of the characters in Les Misérables.

Death Baker died in Brooklyn on 26 April, 1893 at the home of her son, Dr. Charles E. Baker at 244 Washington Avenue.

According to her letters, on the evening of Tuesday, 11 April, two weeks before her death, she complained of feeling “poorly” and difficulty sleeping. Upon awakening, she coughed so incessantly that to quote in her own language, she “saw stars”. Becoming anxious, her daughter, Mollie, went over to St Luke's Hospital, New York, and secured a trained nurse. For a week after this bronchial attack, she felt very sick, and prepared for death.

A day before her death she was in unusually good spirits and felt so well that she left her room to walk with her daughter, Mollie through the hall into a back room to see a sunset, and spoke with George about Les Misérables. According to the nurse, she slept unusually well that night. In the morning at four, the nurse, who was called to her patient's bedside by her heavy breathing, lifted her up, as she had been directed to do at such times, when she said “I believe I am going to have another bad turn.” Then the nurse gave her some medicine and rubbed her, and at a quarter before five Harriette said, “Thank you. I am relieved. Now I think I can sleep.” These were her last words before she almost instantly fell asleep. A few minutes later, the nurse watching her was surprised that Harriette had quietly died.

Her funeral was conducted by eight clergymen of the Episcopal Church on Friday afternoon, 28 April, 1893. Her death was covered in the leading papers of the US and referenced in Andover academic institutions. She had in her possession, which she left to her family. Baker's grave was relocated to her birthplace of Andover, Massachusetts.

Style and themes Harriette's style was simple, chaste, even elegant; her characters lauded for their three-dimensionality. Many of her scenes were picturesque and impressive, compared to great authors. Moreover, her writings were all of moral tone but without mawkish sentimentality, though her style is centrally marked by the imparting of Christian understandings of the spiritual natures of man and woman as moral beings.

Reviewers compared her books for literary execution, moral aim, and influence, with those of Hannah More, Mary Martha Sherwood, and Charlotte Elizabeth. They inculcated high moral and religious sentiments, but were free from the dialectics of the schools, and from all sectarianism; and therefore were commonly found in the libraries regardless of Christian denomination.

Many of her books were republished in England and other countries. Few, if any, were more popular than Tim the Scissors-Grinder, later published in what was called the Tim Series. This volume first appeared as a serial in the Boston Recorder. Long before its completion in that paper, numerous applications were received from different publishing houses for the rights to publish the Tim Series in a book. Positive testimonials from across the US were received of its excellence and usefulness in the conversion of many.

Selected works

Cora and The Doctor; or, Revelations of A Physician's Wife (1855) Little Frankie Series (1860) Little Frankie and His Cousin (1860) Little Frankie and his Mother (1860) Little Frankie at School (1860) Little Frankie at His Plays (1860) Little Frankie on a Journey (1860) Robin Redbreast Series (1860) Little Robins' Love One to Another (1860) Little Robins Learning to Fly(1860) Courtesies of Wedded Life (1860) Lost but Found (1860) Walter and Frank (1860) Tim, the Scissors-Grinder (1861) Sequel to Tim the Scissors-Grinder (1862) Up the Ladder; or, Striving and Thriving (1862) The Two Homes; or. Earning and Spending (1862) Bound Girl, and other Stories (1862) Bound Boy and the Young Soldier (1862) The Prize Bible; or, Covetousness (1863) The Organ-Grinder (1863) Never Give Up; or, The Newsboys (1863) The Rag Pickers: and other stories (1863) Minnie's Pet Horse (1863) Minnie's Pet Lamb (1863) Minnie's Pet Cat (1863) Minnie's Pet Dog (1864) Minnie's Pet Parrot (1864) Minnie's Pet Monkey (1864) White and Black Lies; or, Truth Better than Falsehood (1864) Worth and Wealth; or, Jessie Dorr (1864) Tim's Sister; or, A Word in Season (1864) Light and Shade (1864) The Secret of Success (1865) Art and Artlessness (1865) Every-Day Duties; or, The Schoolmates (1865) Wheel of Fortune (1865) Juliette; or, Now and Forever (1866) Ingleside; or, Without Christ and With Him (1886) The Lost Kitty (1867) Frankie's dog Tony (1867) White and Black Lies (1867) Ida's New Shoes (1867) The Factory Boy (1867) Lily's Birthday (1867) The Pearl of Patience (1868) The Pearl of Love (1868) The Pearl of Peace (1868) The Pearl of Charity (1868) Bertie's Home; or, the Way to be Happy (1868) Good for evil: or, Rose Cottage (1868) Trying To Be Useful (1868) In the Wilderness (1868) Cora and the Doctor (1868) Governor's Pardon (1868) Paul Barton; or The Drunkard's Son (1869) Live and Learn (1869) Behind the Curtin (1869 Fashion and Folly (1869) The Hard Sum, and other Stories (1869) The Breach of Trust (1869) The new buggy (1871) Diligent Dick (1871) Edith Withington: a Book for Girls (1871) Gem of Neatness: Or, The Cousins (1872) The Golden Pennies, and other stories (1872) The Chest of Tools (1880) Frankie's dog Tony (1880) Bertie and the Gardeners (1880) This and That (1887) Ingleside; or, Without Christ and with Him (1888) Minnie and Her Pets Little Agnes Aunt Hattie's Library for Girls Aunt Hattie's Library for Boys Walter and Frank; or, The Apthorp Farm