H. Avis (Hannah Avis) Perdue

Born in 1858, Hannah Avis Perdue—often published as H. Avis Perdue—was an American educator and author whose work was closely tied to elementary teaching. Early 20th-century editions of The Story in Primary Instruction identify her as a primary instructor at the Chicago Normal Practice School, placing her within Chicago’s active world of teacher training and progressive classroom methods.

Perdue is best known for co-authoring The Story in Primary Instruction: Sixteen Stories and How to Use Them with Samuel B. Allison. She also appears on The New Century Second Reader with Florence E. La Victoire, and library records list her as the author of Child Life in Other Lands (1918). Across these books, her focus stays clear: helping children learn through stories, reading, and vivid, accessible material.

Little biographical information about her seems easy to confirm today, which makes the books themselves the best guide to her career. They show a writer deeply interested in how children read, imagine, and understand the wider world.