author
Marian Longfellow
1849–1924
Remembered for poetry, stories, and literary journalism, this American writer also helped create a professional home for women in the arts at the end of the 19th century. Her work appeared under her own name and the pen name "Miriam Lester."
1 Audiobook
Contrasted Songs
by Marian Longfellow
About the author
Born in 1849, she was an American writer, lecturer, and translator who published poetry and newspaper stories during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is especially associated with books including Seven Stories of Christmas, The Lily of the Resurrection, Snow Crystals, and Contrasted Songs.
She also played an important role in literary history: sources from the National League of American Pen Women credit her with organizing the first meeting of the League in 1897, helping open professional space for women writers in Washington, D.C. and beyond. Several sources also note that she was a niece of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, though her own career stands on its own through journalism, verse, and translation.
Some of her writing was published under the name "Miriam Lester," and she is remembered today for a body of work that moves between poetry, devotional writing, and popular literary culture of her era.