author
Patten Beard
Best remembered for warm, inventive children's books, this early 20th-century writer turned everyday play into stories full of surprise and make-believe. Her work has stayed in circulation through public-domain archives and library catalogs, where titles like The Surprise Book still introduce new readers to her playful style.
3 Audiobooks
The Jolly Book of Boxcraft
by Patten Beard
The Good Crow's Happy Shop
by Patten Beard
The Surprise Book
by Patten Beard
About the author
Patten Beard, also identified in memorial records as Emma Patten Beard, was an American author of children's books. Available catalog and archive listings connect her with works including The Surprise Book, Tucked in Tales, and The Good Crow's Happy Shop.
Memorial information places her birth in Syracuse, New York, in 1878 and her death in 1963. That same source describes her as the daughter of Reverend Augustus Field Beard and Annie Demming Beard, and says she later lived in Connecticut.
Her surviving reputation rests mainly on stories and activity-centered books for children, with library and public-domain records showing a steady body of work aimed at imagination, play, and homegrown creativity. A clear, verifiable portrait image was not available from the sources I could confirm.