Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811 - 1896)

Genre: Children's Literature, General Fiction, Non-Fiction

Best known for her first novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) which was an immediate sensation, fanning the pro- and anti-slavery flames that eventually gave rise to the Civil War. Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811, and grew up in a family that prized education and morality. Her father Lyman and several of her brothers were well-known preachers. She taught at her sister Catharine's school from 1827 to 1832, and then at Western Female Institute in Cincinnati (also founded by Catharine). Harriet married Calvin E. Stowe in 1836 when he was a professor at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. She wrote stories and sketches to earn money after they were married, and in 1850 the Stowes moved to Brunswick, Maine after her husband was appointed Professor of Natural and Revealed Religion at Bowdoin College. This is where she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, first published serially in National Era (1851-1852), and The Pearl. The Stowes lived in Andover, Massachusetts from 1853 to 1864, and then in Hartford, Connecticut. After her husband died in 1866, Stowe remained in Hartford, raising their seven children and traveling widely in the United States and abroad. She died on July 1, 1896.

Selected Bibliography

  • The Gift, a Christmas and New Year's present for 1840 (1839; with Eliza Leslie and Deacon Enos)
  • The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly (1852)
  • History of the Edmonson Family (1852)
  • A Key To Uncle Tom's Cabin; Presenting the Original Facts and Documents Upon Which the Story is Founded Together with Corroborative Statements Verifying the Truth of the Work (1853), with documentary evidence to support her claims concerning slavery
  • Four Ways of Observing the Sabbath: Sketches from the Note Book of an Elderly Gentleman (1853)
  • Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands (1854), an account of her travels
  • First Geography for Children (1855)
  • The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings (1855)
  • Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856), an anti-slavery novel
  • Elisabeth of the Wartburg (1856)
  • Our Charley and What to do with him (1858)
  • The Minister's Wooing (1859)
  • The Pearl of Orr's Island (1862)
  • Agnes of Sorrento (1862)
  • The Ravages of a Carpet (1864)
  • House and Home Papers (1864)
  • The Chimney-Corner (1865)
  • Little Foxes; or, The Little Failings that Mar Domestic Happiness (1866)
  • Light After Darkness: Religious Poems (1867)
  • Queer Little People (1867)
  • Men of our Times; or, Leading Patriots of the Day (1868)
  • Oldtown Folks (1869)
  • Lady Byron Vindicated; a History of the Byron Contraversy, from its beginnings in 1816 to the present time (1870)
  • Pink & White Tyranny: A Society Novel (1871)
  • My Wife and I: or, Harry Henderson's History (1871)
  • Sam Lawson's Oldtown Fireside Stories (1872)
  • Women in Sacred History (1873)
  • Palmetto-leaves (1873)
  • We and our Neighbors; or, The Records of an Unfashionable Street (1875)
  • The First Christmas of New England (1876/2002)
  • Footsteps of the Master (1877)
  • The Daisy's First Winter and Other Stories (1877)
  • Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives (1878)
  • A Dog's Mission; or, The Story of the Old Avery House, and other Stories (1880)
  • Nelly's Heroics with Other Heroic Stories (1883)
  • We Young Folks: Original Stories for Boys and Girls (1886)
  • Household Papers and Stories (1896)
  • Religious Studies: Sketches and Poems (1896)

Selected Resources