Josephine Daskam Bacon

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1876, Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon studied at Smith College and became known as a remarkably flexible writer. She published poems, short stories, novels, and children’s books, and she often gave her stories lively female protagonists and a clear interest in the pressures and possibilities facing women.

She wrote for both young readers and adults, with books ranging from light, funny campus and family stories to more serious fiction. One of her best-known successes was The Memoirs of a Baby, and she also built a reputation for juvenile mysteries and polished magazine writing at a time when periodicals played a major role in American literary life.

Bacon died in 1961, but her work still offers an engaging glimpse of early 20th-century reading tastes. She stands out as an author who could be amusing without being slight and thoughtful without losing her sense of story.