author
Best known for a lively early-20th-century children’s book, this writer drew on family life to tell warm, funny stories shaped by faith and everyday mischief. Her work offers a small but vivid glimpse of Catholic home life and childhood in the Philadelphia suburbs of her time.
by Josephine Culpeper
Josephine Culpeper is known for Bolax: Imp or Angel—Which?, published in 1907. The book follows the adventures of a spirited boy called Bolax and his sister Amy, blending humor, family scenes, and moral lessons for young readers.
Surviving records suggest the story was closely tied to her own family life. A Villanova Library post about a copy presented by the author describes the book as a fictionalized biographical account of her son and notes that she raised her family in Wayne, Pennsylvania. That same source says she wrote from diaries she kept of her children’s sayings and doings, which helps explain the book’s lively, personal feel.
Only a small amount of biographical information appears to be readily available today, but the work itself has lasted. Through Bolax, she remains part of the long tradition of writers who turned ordinary home life into memorable children’s literature.