One of America's first woman newspaper columnists. Sara Payson Willis, using the name Fanny Fern, wrote weekly from 1851 to 1872, primarily for the New York Ledger. Her columns were widely reprinted, and several of her ten books of essays were best-sellers in the United States and Great Britain. She used her pen to rise from widowed poverty and grief to independence and acclaim. A popular social critic, with a caustic wit and keen eye for injustice, she was widely respected for her attacks on sham and snobbery, her support of the virtuous and hardworking poor, and her barbed observations of upper-class life and its pretensions. Her novels are praised for their social content, and are also of interest for their heroines, who successfully deviate from the conventions to develop self-respect and independence.

Willis was one of nine children of Nathaniel and Hannah Parker Willis. She was born on 9 July...