brother's house one summer Sunday morning. Before attending afternoon service she wrote the first chapter of a novel. It was soon finished and was published that year, then came "Hobomak," a tale of early times.
In juding of this little book it is to be remembered that it marked the very dawn of American imaginative literature. Irving had printed only his "Sketchbook"; Cooper only "Precaution." This new production was the hurried work of a young woman of nineteen, an Indian tale by one who had scarcely even seen an Indian. Accordingly "Hobomak" now seems very crude in execution, very improbable in plot and is redeemed only by a sincere attempt at local coloring.
The success of this first effort was, however, such as to encourage the publication of a second tale in the following year. This was "The Rebels; The Boston before the Revolution, by the Author of Hobomak." It was a great advance on its predecessor, and can even be compared, favorably, with Cooper's Revolutionary novels.
In October, 1828, Miss Francis married David Lee Child, a lawyer of Boston. In that day it seemed to be held necessary for American women to work their passage into literature by first completing some kind of cookery book, so Mrs. Child published in 1829 her "Frugal Housewife," a book which proved so popular that in 1855 it had reached its thirty-third edition.
The "Biographies of Good Wives" reached a fifth edition in the course of time as did her "History of Woman," and in 1833 Mrs. Child was brought to one of those bold steps which made successive eras of her literary life—the publication of her "Appeal for that Class of Americans called Africans." It was just at the most dangerous moment of the rising storm of the slavery question that Mrs. Child wrote this and it brought down upon her unending censure. It is evident that this result was not unexpected for the preface to the book explicitly recognizes the probable dissatisfaction of the public. She says, "I am fully aware of the unpopularity of the task I have undertaken; but though I expect ridicule and censure, I cannot fear them. Should it be the means of advancing, even one single hour, the inevitable progress of truth and justice, I would not exchange the consciousness for all Rothschild's wealth or Sir Walter's fame." These words have in them a genuine ring; and the book is really worthy of them. The tone is calm and strong, the treatment systematic, the points well put, the statements well guarded.
It was the first anti-slavery work ever printed in America and it appears to be the ablest, covering the whole ground better than any other. During the next year she published the "Oasis," also about this time appeared from her hand the "Anti-slavery Catechism" and a small book called "Authentic Anecdotes of American Slavery."
While seemingly absorbed in reformatory work she still kept an outlook in the direction of pure literature and was employed for several years on "Philothea," which appeared in 1836. The scene of this novel was laid in Greece, and in spite of the unpopularity that Mrs. Child's slavery appeal had created it went through three editions.
In 1841 Mr. and Mrs. Child were engaged by the American Anti-Slavery Standard, a weekly newspaper published in New York. Mr. Child's health being
