Harriet Mann Miller (pen names Olive Thorne and Olive Thorne Miller; 25 June 1831 – 25 December 1918) was an American author, naturalist, and ornithologist. She was one of the first three women raised to elective membership in the American Ornithologists' Union. Miller wrote stories for leading magazines. At the start of her career, her articles appeared under the pen name "Olive Thorne" while after marriage, she used the signature of "Olive Thorne Miller". Her books include: Little Folks in Feathers and Fur (1879), Queer Pets at Marcy’s (1880), Little People of Asia (1882), Birds’ Ways (1885), In Nesting Time (1888), and also a serial story entitled, "Nimpo’s Troubles", published in the St. Nicholas Magazine, in 1874.
Early life and education
Harriet Mann was the eldest of four children born to Seth Hunt Mann, a banker, and Mary Field (Holbrook) Mann in Auburn, New York on 25 June 1831. She was the oldest of four siblings, the three brothers all being younger than herself. Her youth was passed in cities from New York to Missouri, stopping from three to five years in each place. Western New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois were respectively her home.
When Miller was eleven years old, the Mann family was in Ohio, where she attended private schools for five years. Miller was a bookworm from her early days. She was reportedly a shy, awkward, girl, who retreated to her books. Her ambition was to write, though she hated school compositions and shirked them when possible.
Career
When Mann was twenty she began writing short anonymous letters to the daily papers, on subjects of passing interest. At the age of twenty-three, in 1854, she married Watts Todd Miller, and added the name of Miller to her own. The couple would have four children. From 1858 to 1869, she put aside writing in order to raise her children. The couple lived in Chicago, Illinois, and after about 1875, in Brooklyn, New York.
