Hannah Webster Foster (1758-1840) was an American novelist. In the 1770s she began writing political articles for Boston newspapers. Her epistolary novel, The Coquette, or, The History of Eliza Wharton, was published anonymously in 1797. In 1798, she published The Boarding School, or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils, a commentary on female education in the United States.