Nora Perry

Nora Perry (1831 – May 13, 1896) was an American poet, newspaper correspondent, and writer of juvenile stories, and for some years, Boston correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. Her verse was collected in After the Ball (1875), Her Lover's Friend (1879), New Songs and Ballads (1886), Legends and Lyrics (1890). Her fiction, chiefly juvenile, included The Tragedy of the Unexpected (1880), stories; For a Woman (1885), a novel; A Book of Love Stories (1881); A Flock of Girls and their Friends (1887); The New Year's Call (1903); and many other volumes.

Early years and education

Nora Perry was born in Dudley, Massachusetts, in 1831. Her parents removed to Providence, Rhode Island, in her childhood. Her father was engaged in mercantile business there. She was educated at home and in private schools. She received a varied and liberal training in many lines. Her first piece, "The Shipwreck" was written when Perry was eight years old.

Career

At the age of eighteen, she began to write for publication as a newspaper correspondent. Her first serial story, "Rosalind Newcomb", was published in Harper's Magazine in 1859–60. Much of her time in later years was spent in Boston, where she wrote society letters for the Chicago Tribune and also became Boston correspondent to the most influential paper in Rhode Island, the Providence Journal. In 1859, there appeared in the Boston and other papers, printed, reprinted, copied one from the other, a touching poem called "After the Ball". Ever since its first appearance in its fugitive state, the name of Nora Perry became familiar to readers.