author
Edna A. Brown
1875–1944
A librarian-turned-children’s author, she wrote warm early-20th-century stories for young readers and spent years championing library spaces made especially for children.
2 Audiobooks
The Chinese Kitten
by Edna A. Brown
The Spanish Chest
by Edna A. Brown
About the author
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1875, Edna Adelaide Brown trained in library science and went on to become a prominent librarian as well as a writer for children. Sources about her life describe her as the author of more than a dozen children’s books, and records of her work list titles including The Chinese Kitten, The Silver Bear, and Journey’s End.
Brown is especially connected with Memorial Hall Library in Andover, Massachusetts, where she became the library’s first professional librarian. Accounts of her career say she pushed for years to create a dedicated children’s room there, reflecting the same interest in young readers that shaped her fiction.
She died in 1944. Today, her stories survive through library catalogs and public-domain collections, where she is remembered for gentle family-centered books and for her work helping make libraries more welcoming to children.