Mrs. Napier Malcolm

Mrs. Napier Malcolm is known today for Children of Persia, a nonfiction book for younger readers that was later made available by Project Gutenberg. The book explores family life, religion, play, schooling, and social customs in Persia, now Iran, and was written in a clear, explanatory style aimed at making a distant place feel real to children.

The surviving sources available here reveal much more about the book than about the author herself. Her name is closely associated with missionary writing on Persia, and contemporary records also connect the name Napier Malcolm with Church Missionary Society work in places including Yezd and Shiraz. Because the biographical details for Mrs. Napier Malcolm herself are limited in the sources reviewed, it is safest to describe her as an author remembered primarily for this one book.

Today, her work is of interest both as children's nonfiction and as a historical document. Modern readers may notice its strongly Christian missionary viewpoint, but it also preserves a snapshot of how Persia was described to English-speaking readers in the early 1900s.