author
Rebecca Deming Moore
b. 1877
A Canadian-born writer of children's literature, she is best remembered for lively, approachable books that introduced young readers to notable women from history. Her work has a warm, educational feel, blending storytelling with biography in a way that still reads clearly today.
1 Audiobook
When They Were Girls
by Rebecca Deming Moore
About the author
Born on July 31, 1877, Rebecca Deming Moore was a Canadian-born author who wrote for young readers. Surviving catalog and public-domain records connect her most clearly with children's literature, and her best-known book is When They Were Girls, published in 1923.
That book presents short, readable sketches of famous women including Jane Addams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Julia Ward Howe, Helen Keller, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Rather than focusing only on adult achievements, Moore looked at their early lives, inviting children to see how character, curiosity, and determination begin to form long before greatness is recognized.
Moore died on October 18, 1935. Although not widely remembered today, her writing still offers a glimpse of an earlier style of juvenile nonfiction—one that aimed to inspire young readers through clear storytelling and real lives.