author
Virginia Sharpe Patterson
1841–1913
An American writer and journalist of the late 19th century, she also published under the pen name Garry Gaines. Her work reflects a lively literary life shaped by newspapers, magazines, and popular writing of her time.
1 Audiobook
Dickey Downy: The Autobiography of a Bird
by Virginia Sharpe Patterson
About the author
Born in Delaware, Ohio, in September 1841, Anne Virginia Sharpe Patterson became known as an American author and journalist. She also wrote under the pseudonym Garry Gaines, a detail that appears in standard reference sources about her life.
Writing and journalism seem to have run in the family. Biographical accounts describe her father, George W. Sharpe, as a newspaper editor, and Patterson herself built a career in authorship during a period when magazine and newspaper writing offered important paths for women in print.
Library records show that her published work included titles such as Business Men's Jubilee and The Story of a Stubborn Girl. She died in 1913, leaving behind a small but still traceable body of work in historical and library archives.