Poet. Autodidact (unschoolers, REPRESENT!). New Hampshirite. Prestigious literary prize named for her. In 1830s and 1840s, held a “Ladies Fair” at Quincy Market, and raised $30,000 for the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument. Mostly responsible for creating a unified national Thanksgiving. Editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. Huge proponent of education for girls and women. Wore black for 57 of her 90 years. Oh, and she wrote, Mary Had a Little Lamb (based on actual events). Just like I asked myself last week, how did I not know about Sarah Josepha Hale?
Funny thing is, I wanted to do a quick and easy blog today, so I decided to search the interwebz for a quote to use with my rainbow picture. After I found hers, I checked Wikipedia to see who she was, and spent the next few thousand hours reading about her. Her life was, in a word, fascinating.
Here’s her quote, paired with a picture I took on June 9th.
Now I’m off to work on the ninety-billion things I was supposed to do today. Happy Friday, all!
Oddly, I had thought “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was one of those rhymes whose authorship had been lost in the mists of time. Cool to know it’s not. 🙂
I had the same thought, and while there’s still a bit of debate on the authorship (https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Mary_Had_a_Little_Lamb), I agree – it’s neat to know it was based on a real girl named Mary, and her pet lamb. 😀