Lavina S. Goodwin

Lavinia S. Goodwin (February 4, 1833 – 1911) was an American author and educator of the long nineteenth century. She was a charter member of the New England Woman's Press Association.

Biography Lavinia (sometimes spelled, "Lavina") Stella Tyler was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, February 4, 1833. Her parents were James P. and Philura (Crocker) Tyler. In King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston, is the grave of an ancestor marked by a stone from a foreign quarry, dating back to the Colonial period and bearing the coat of arms of the English Tyler family.

She was educated in public and private schools and the State Seminary, Derby, Vermont. After having conducted departments for women and children, and become favorably known as a writer of stories, at the beginning of 1869, she was made associate editor of The Watchman (Boston), in especial charge of its family page. The affiliation was re-established after an interval of service on the Journal of Education.

A season in California and Mexico tested her ability as a correspondent, and she was employed in that capacity in the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (1876) and in the Paris Exposition Universelle (1878), her published letters winning general admiration. She produced a number of serials, one for a leading London journal.

Goodwin's volumes included, Little Folks' Own (collection of stories and verse, which had a large sale); The Little Helper (biography); The mysterious Miner; Quicksands; The Light of Home; and Wings, Legs and Voices. Her books were published in the U.S. and England. "Head-dresses Of A Century Ago" (1886) "The Ethics of Suicide" (The Boston Globe, 1888)

Short stories "An Odd Mistake" (Our Little Ones, 1891) "Better Than She Knew"

Poetry "A Corner in Art" (1885) "Sonnet at Pisa" (The Current, 1885) "A Boy's Call" (Wide Awake, 1893) "Tapping" (The Youth's Companion, 1898) "When It Is Finished" (The Youth's Companion, 1902)