SOURCE: "Lydia Maria Child," in Contemporaries, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899, pp. 108-41.

In the essay below, Higginson discusses Child's broad cultural influence, tempering a general synopsis of her life and works with his personal recollections of her.

To those of us who were by twenty years or more the juniors of Mrs. Child, she always presented herself rather as an object of love than of cool criticism, even if we had rarely met her face to face. In our earliest recollections she came before us less as author or philanthropist than as some kindly and omnipresent aunt, beloved forever by the heart of childhood,—some one gifted with all lore, and furnished with unfathomable resources,—some one discoursing equal delight to all members of the household. In those days she seemed to supply a sufficient literature for any family through her own unaided pen. Thence came novels for...