author
Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee
1780–1865
Best known for the widely reprinted Three Experiments of Living, this early American writer turned everyday moral and domestic questions into popular fiction and biography. Her books reached a broad 19th-century audience and helped make practical, instructive reading engaging.
2 Audiobooks
A memoir of Miss Hannah Adams
by Hannah Adams, Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee
Rich enough : a tale of the times
by Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee
About the author
Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1780, she was the daughter of physician Micajah Sawyer. She married George Gardner Lee in 1807 and was later widowed, a change in circumstances that is often noted as part of the background to her writing life.
She began publishing relatively late and became best known for Three Experiments of Living (1837), a novelette that was issued in many editions in the United States and in England. She also wrote biographies and works of cultural history, including books on painters, sculptors, and religious figures, showing a range that went well beyond domestic fiction.
Lee died in Boston in 1865. She is remembered as an American author whose work blended storytelling, moral reflection, and accessible nonfiction for a wide readership.