Annie Longfellow Thorp

Annie Longfellow Thorp is a little obscure now, but her name survives in The Lighting of the Christmas Tree, a 1917 play credited to Selma Lagerlöf, Josephine Ludlow Palmer, and Annie Longfellow Thorp. Project Gutenberg lists that work under her name, which is the clearest widely available record of her published writing.

Reliable biographical sources point to her as Anne Allegra "Annie" Longfellow Thorp, the youngest daughter of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The National Park Service notes that she was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, often called "Annie," and later married Joseph Gilbert Thorp, Jr. Its profile also shows her continued connection to the Longfellow family home and public events connected with her father's legacy.

Because the historical record attached to her authorship is fairly slim, it is safest to remember her as a minor writer and cultural figure rather than a major literary celebrity. Still, her surviving work and family background give a glimpse of an American literary circle in which stories, performance, and tradition were closely linked.