author
Frances C. Sparhawk
1847–1930
A prolific American novelist and story writer, she published widely in magazines and books and was also remembered for her interest in Native American rights. Her writing career stretched from popular serial fiction to personal literary recollection.
1 Audiobook
Whittier at close range
by Frances C. Sparhawk
About the author
Born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, on July 28, 1847, Frances Campbell Sparhawk was educated in private schools and grew up in a family connected to New England literary life. Her father, Dr. Thomas Sparhawk, was a friend of the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, a relationship that later shaped some of her most memorable nonfiction writing.
Sparhawk became a busy and versatile author, publishing many serial stories in periodicals including The Christian Union and The Bay State Monthly. She also wrote novels and books such as A Lazy Man's Work, A Chronicle of Conquest, The Children of the Valley, and Whittier at Close Range, the last offering a personal view of the poet she had known through family and community ties.
She was noted in contemporary biographical sources not only as an author but also as a philanthropically minded woman associated with efforts on behalf of American Indians. Sparhawk died on January 9, 1930, in Brookline, Massachusetts, leaving behind the work of a writer closely linked to the literary and reform circles of her time.