author
Emily Paret Atwater
1873–1951
Best known for imaginative children’s books set under the sea, this early 20th-century writer mixed storytelling with natural history in a way that invited young readers to explore marine life. She was also part of Baltimore’s lively literary world, where women writers built communities and shared their work.
1 Audiobook
How Sammy Went to Coral-Land
by Emily Paret Atwater
About the author
Born in 1873, Emily Paret Atwater wrote children’s fiction and educational stories, with books including How Sammy Went to Coral-Land and In Ocean Land. Records from the Library of Congress and other library catalogs show her work was published in the early 1900s and often centered on sea life and nature.
A profile from The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore describes her as following her mother, Adaline Peck Paret Atwater, into the club and finding her place as a writer of educational children’s stories. That connection places her within an important network of women who were creating space for themselves in literary and public life.
Atwater died in 1951. Though she is not widely known today, her books still stand out for their gentle mix of imagination, instruction, and curiosity about the natural world.