Abbie Farwell Brown (August 21, 1871 – March 5, 1927) was an American writer.
Early life and education
Brown was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the first of two daughters of Benjamin F. Brown, a descendant of Isaac Allerton, and Clara Neal Brown, who contributed to The Youth's Companion. Her sister Ethel became an author and illustrator under the name Ann Underhill. Her family, for ten generations, had only resided in New England, and Brown herself spent her entire life in her family's Beacon Hill home.
Brown was valedictorian of the Bowdoin School in 1886. She then attended the Girls' Latin School, where she was friends with Josephine Preston Peabody. She was the driving force behind the newly created school newspaper, The Jabberwock, named by Brown after the poem by Lewis Carroll. They wrote to Carroll for permission to use the name and Carroll wrote back, wishing them "all success to the forthcoming magazine". (The Jabberwock was published through 1988, when publication was ceased by Boston Latin Academy, although The Jabberwock for alumnae continues to be published by the GLS alumnae association.) After graduating in 1891, she attended Radcliffe College, graduating in 1894.
While at Girls' Latin School, she was contributing pieces to St. Nicholas Magazine, some illustrated by her sister. Starting in 1898, under the pen name Jean Neal she wrote articles for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. She also wrote a one-act comedy called Quits (1896) set at a women's college.
Career
Her first children's book, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts (1900) was inspired by her first trip abroad, specifically by the carved choir stalls in Chester Cathedral depicting the life of Saint Werburgh. The book retells Christian stories of the animal encounters of various saints. Brown would write other collections retelling old tales for a contemporary child audience. Her In the Days of Giants (1902) featured stories from Norse mythology and remained a standard text in libraries for several generations. Tales of the Red Children (1909), co-written with James MacIntosh Bell, featured Canadian Indian folklore.
