Amanda
Douglas
Amanda
Minnie Douglas was born on 14 July 1831 (some sources erroneously
list 1837) in New York City, the daughter of John and Elizabeth
Douglas. She attended the City Institute there, and, after 1853
(when the family moved to Newark, New Jersey), continued her
education in English and American literature with a private tutor.
According to a contemporaneous biographical sketch, "In childhood
she was noted for her powers of story-telling, when she would tell
her friends long tales, regular serials, that would continue for
weeks."
Douglas was planning to study engraving and design
when family illness intervened: she was eighteen at the time and her
presence and income were needed at home, so she took up writing,
selling stories to various periodicals, including the Saturday
Evening Post, New York Ledger, and Lady's Friend. As Douglas
explained "I had no thought of becoming a novelist, as I was so
interested in other pursuits; but the path seemed to open, and
others proved quite impossible, as I could not leave my home."
She remained in Newark, and apparently kept intellectually
active, joining "the Ray Palmer club--the oldest woman's literary
organization in the locality" and the New Jersey Women's Press Club.
She was acquainted with several writers, including Edgar Allen Poe,
and was friends with Louisa May Alcott.
In addition to her
writing, Douglas helped develop several inventions, and even
patented one: "a folding frame for a mosquito-net, to be used by
travellers, artists, and others."
Douglas was a prolific
writer; from 1866 to 1913, she usually published one or more books
per year and wrote for adults as well as children. In Trust, her
first book (an adult novel), was published in 1866, and its sales
surpassed 20,000 copies. Unfortunately, Douglas had sold the
copyright along with the story and thus failed to benefit fully from
its success. Learning from her experience, she retained copyright on
subsequent books.
Her first girls' series, Kathie
(1870-1871), was somewhat didactic and very much in the style of
19th-century series; her next, "Little Girl" (e.g., A Little Girl in
Old Boston, A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia), was among the
earliest historical fiction series for girls. In 1893, she received
a $2000 prize for the best work of juvenile fiction from Youth's
Companion for a non-series title, Larry. More than ten years after
her death, the entry in Dictionary of American Biography noted that
"during her long life her books circulated widely and even to-day
they are in constant demand in public and Sunday-school libraries."
Her biographical sketch in A Woman of the Century (1893) also
noted "Douglas has suffered much from long illness, but she keeps up
courage . . . She is a fluent talker and well informed on current
events."
Douglas never married. She died 18 July 1916 in
Newark.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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