Sarah Josepha (Buell) Hale (24 October 1788-30 April 1879), editor, poet, and novelist, was born in Newport, New Hampshire. She was well-educated in the classics by her family and her desire to learn continued after her marriage in 1813 to a lawyer, David Hale, as they studied together in the evenings. After the death of her husband in 1822, Hale turned to writing to support herself and her five children. In 1828, after publishing a volume of verse and a novel, Northwood (Boston: Bowles & Dearborn, 1827), she accepted the editorship of the Ladies' Magazine and moved to Boston. Her work attracted the attention of a competitor, Louis Godey, and in 1836 he offered to buy her magazine (since 1834 called the American Ladies' Magazine) and merge it with his own Lady's Book. The first number of the new Lady's Book, with Hale as editor, appeared in January 1837, and in 1840 its title was changed to Godey's Lady's...