A descendant of the earliest New England settlers, Abbie Farwell Brown lived all her life in the family home on Beacon Hill in Boston.

Brown's visit in 1899 to Chester Cathedral, England, which inspired her first children's book, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts (1900), and led to her career as a juvenile author.

The best of Brown's children's books derive their charm from her appreciation of traditional popular literature-legend, myth, and folktale, which includes, of course, the fairy tale.


Nourished by myth, legend, and the folk tale, Brown contributed to children's literature of the early 20th century a number of well-written, imaginative stories, some pleasant verse, and two distinguished versions of saints' legends and Nordic myths.