MP3 Audios - Biography

This uplifting account of a noble life will inspire the entire family.

The name of Florence Nightingale is a household word, but the exact nature and
scope of her work, and the difficulties and discouragement under which it was
accomplished, are unknown to many of todays youth. This story of that wonderful
womans life, written primarily for children, will, because of its rare sympathy and
beauty of style, appeal to older listeners as well.

Laura E. Richards (1850-1943), one of Gardiner, Maine's two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, (along with Edwin Arlington Robinson) was born in Boston to eminent parents, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, founder of the Perkins School for the Blind; and Julia Ward Howe, social reformer and lyricist of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." In 1871, she married Henry Richards (1848-1949), architect and industrialist, who returned to Gardiner, Maine in 1976 to manage the family paper mills. Here she wrote more than ninety works, mostly in the fields of children's literature and biography, at the family's celebrated residence, the Yellow House. Following the example of her parents, Mrs. Richards brought about social reforms and civic improvements in Gardiner including the introduction of safe drinking water, the public health nurse, the hospital, the Red Cross, a new high school, and numerous service organizations, including the Gardiner Public Library. As her children grew up, she wrote short stories which interested them. Captain January (1890), a best seller, was twice made into movies, and the second time starred Shirley Temple. Her two volume biography of her mother, Julia Ward Howe (1915) was the first biography to be honored by a Pulitzer Prize. --From the Gardiner Public Library

Anna Fields has found her 1 home behind the microphone after beginning her career on the stage in Washington, D.C. She has garnered several AudioFile Earphones Awards and won the coveted Audie Award in 2004.