Mary Mapes Dodge lived at the time, not so long past, when New York was changing from a quiet town of homes to a roaring metropolis.

Author of the perennially popular, world-famous Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Mary Mapes Dodge's most important contribution to children's literature was still her brilliant editorship of the now-deceased but fondly remembered St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls. The story of this far-seeing, alive woman who helped discover and develop such fine writers and artists as Howard Pyle, Frank Stockton, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Oliver Herford, Lucretia P. Hale, and many others, makes fascinating reading.

Mary Mapes and her three sisters had the benefit on an excellent education; their father, James Mapes, scientist and agriculturist, handled his daughters with a wisdom unusual in those times. Mary showed literary inclinations. Tutored by her father, she wrote for the magazine The Working Farmer.

After her marriage to William Dodge, she put aside her writing for a while, to give most of her time to her two boys. Five years later, forced to make the living for the family, she met with immediate success when the first stories she wrote for publication appeared in book form.

Beloved by authors and children alike, the work of Mary Mapes Dodge was important to the entire reading public, young and old. As long as St. Nicholas magazine is remembered, the name of Mary Mapes Dodge will always be spoken with respect and nostalgia, and with deep affection.

From the book