Mrs. Sale Barker

Lucy Elizabeth Drummond Sale-Barker, who often published as Mrs. Sale Barker, was a British writer for children born in 1841 and died in 1892. Sources identify her full name as Lucy Elizabeth Drummond Sale-Barker, née Davies, and note that she was also known by her first married name, Lucy Villiers.

She began her literary work with occasional articles for Dublin University Magazine and St James's Magazine, then turned more regularly to writing for young readers around 1872. Her books include Little Wideawake, and records on Project Gutenberg and library catalogs show that her work continued to circulate well beyond her lifetime.

She is remembered chiefly as a Victorian author who wrote for the young in a friendly, accessible style. The surviving online record is fairly brief, but it clearly places her among the many 19th-century women who helped shape children's reading through magazines, stories, and illustrated books.