Mary Mapes Dodge is no longer widely known, but when she died in 1905, her name had been associated for forty years with quality in children's literature. She is best known today as the author of an enduring classic, Hans Brinker; or, The Silver Skates. During her lifetime, however, she was equally well known as the editor of St. Nicholas; Scribner's Illustrated Magazine for Girls and Boys. She was its first editor and for thirty-two years guided this periodical which has been acclaimed as the finest children's magazine of all time.

Mary Elizabeth Mapes, known as Lizzie, was the second of five surviving children of James Jay Mapes and his wife, Sophia Furman Mapes. There is some question about her exact birthdate. All sources agree that she was born on 26 January; the year, however, is variously given as 1830, 1831, and 1838. Catherine Morris Wright, who wrote a 1979 biography authorized by Dodge's...