Chapter 1 And Thus Commenced . Summer began to slowly yield to autumn with an earlier dip of the sun over the New Hampshire horizon and a dip of the mercury on the thermometer. It was a time for harvest, good or bad, one that might meet or fall short of expectations, needs, and wants. No matter that season''s yield, this woman would, along with all the others in her place and time, take a moment, or even a day to stop and give thanks. She expected that the state''s governor would, as was custom by this point in time, proclaim when this somewhat annual, yet always changeable, celebration and day of reflection would take place. Despite a life that had brought her so much upheaval of late, and no matter her precarious financial situation, and with all of her recent and still deeply resonating loss, she welcomed the opportunity to find something, anything, for which to be grateful. With her options severely limited and five young mouths to feed, the woman would do what she had always done. The one thing that brought her some measure of joy.

She was tired. It was late. There was a hungry baby at her breast. Because of her gender she had little standing, but always a foundation on which she was willing to bravely stand. Her options were few. But she had a pen and a purpose and something to say. And so as she had so many times before, Sarah Josepha Hale sat down to write. Writing was never a vocation that a young Sarah had actively sought, despite her love of the written word and her rabid consumption of books-one of the few indulgences women were allowed.

Even if writing had long been her goal, it was not the kind of calling encouraged in the young women of her time. No, she needed work and she needed money. Life thus far may not have provided her much in the way of opportunity, but it had prepared her well to make do and get by. Sarah Josepha Buell had spent her childhood in the late 1700s on a farm just outside of Newport, New Hampshire, which sat near the Sugar River. The year she was born, 1788, the recently liberated colonies had yet to elect their first president. Farm life instilled in young Sarah, as it did in many rural folk, a work ethic necessary for survival, especially in the harsh climate of the states'' northern reaches. For Sarah, this drive also likely stemmed from witnessing as a child the struggles endured by her father, Gordon Buell, a Revolutionary War veteran who had fought under General Horatio Gates. Although her father survived those battles, he had returned to his family injured, with the use of his legs badly compromised.

This in turn badly compromised his ability to run a farm. So he had long relied on his sons, Sarah''s brothers, Horatio and Charles, to help him. Sarah also had a younger sister, Martha, named for their mother, and the young women helped their mother run the house. As for her two older brothers, Charles soon set out to sea and Horatio, whom they called "Race," was left on his own to help Gordon Buell with the manual labor the family''s farm required. Given that Martha Buell had fed her children''s minds in the best way she knew how-with ample helpings of books-it wouldn''t be a surprise that Race''s aspirations were to pursue college and law, not farming and agriculture. For young women not attending school, reading strongly shaped Sarah''s early years as well. "Next to the Bible and Pilgrim''s Progress," she later wrote, "my earliest reading was Milton, Johnson, Pope, Cowper, and a part of Shakespeare." But the book that made the biggest impression on her, at a mere seven years of age, was The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe.

"Of all the books I saw," Sarah added, "few were written by Americans and none by women. But here was a work, the most fascinating I had ever read, always excepting Pilgrim''s Progress, written by a woman. How happy it made me!" And so Sarah was educated, primarily in the only way a young woman could be at that time-through books and conversation, yes, but also by intellectually piggybacking on the educations of the males in her life, like her brother Race. Race thought it unfair his sister was denied a college education, and what he learned at school, he generously shared with Sarah, including philosophy and Latin. Between her mother''s example and her brother''s encouragement, Sarah''s teeming mind and growing passion for reading and writing had well prepared her for some sort of work outside the home. That is, if she could get it. Race-with the benefit of traditional schooling-had been preparing to attend Dartmouth, with the intention of becoming a lawyer. Though his attendance there took him away from the Buell household and therefore placed added pressure on Sarah and her younger sister, Race''s visits home to see his family offered Sarah even more advanced opportunities to continue her hand-me-down education.

Race''s visits home didn''t give him enough time to provide the assistance Gordon Buell needed in order to keep the farm running, and so it became clear to Sarah''s father that things had to change. He decided he had to seek other, less physically taxing options for work. With his energies waning and his resources drying up, he moved his wife and two daughters into town, where he decided to try his hand as an innkeeper. Gordon Buell opened the doors of the Rising Sun Inn on Newport''s main thoroughfare in 1810. Sarah was twenty-two years old. Now living in the town of Newport, Sarah with her mind full of books and a thorough if secondhand education at her disposal, sought work as a teacher. This occupation was still considered primarily a job for men who had had the benefit of formal schooling, but exceptions were sometimes made if the need in the community was there. The nearby town of Guild had just such a need, and Sarah began teaching there to earn money for her family.

There she was able to share what she had learned and observe the lives of the youngsters in her care. As she did-as she would continue to do-she made note of what she saw in her tiny schoolhouse day to day, and those experiences would inform her writing for years to come. Race was away at school, Gordon Buell had his inn, and Sarah had her job. Things in Newport were seeming settled, if challenging. The family had not heard from Sarah''s older brother, Charles, for some time, long enough that he was presumed lost at sea. They all felt Race''s absence. And now, not long after the Rising Sun Inn opened, on November 25, 1811, the Buell family encountered yet another loss. On that day, Sarah''s sister, Martha, died of consumption, or tuberculosis.

Adding to the family''s grief, Sarah''s mother passed away shortly thereafter. Now only Sarah and her father remained at home. Without his wife''s efforts and support, and with Sarah now occupied with her teaching responsibilities, Gordon Buell was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the inn. Living in town also meant that Sarah was interacting with more people and passers-through. And though 1811 had brought loss and turmoil to the household, it also brought something new and exciting to Sarah''s life, in the form of a lawyer named David Hale. Taverns were indispensable locales in a small town: a place to meet; get food, drink, or lodging; find out the latest news. David had come to Newport to open his own law office and shortly after his arrival, the newcomer stopped into the Rising Sun Inn. And there he met Sarah.

David was older than she, but the pair were impeccably well suited to each other. And though Sarah''s father eventually sold the inn, it was there that the pair married on October 23, 1813. Sarah was a day shy of her twenty-fifth birthday. The two moved into a lovely two-story white-painted wooden house on the town''s main street. It had plenty of windows and ample light, and sat across from several small streams that ran through the center of town and created small islets that residents would hop and traverse to get from one side to the other. The pair filled their house with those very objects they both cherished most: books. Sarah delighted in the evenings she and David spent sitting together to read and discuss the books that filled their shelves. They even devised a nightly program of study, lending goals and purpose to their favorite pastime.

From eight in the evening until ten, the couple studied topics like French and botany. In some ways, David had taken up where Race had left off, sharing the benefits of his formal education with Sarah. "In all our mental pursuits," she later wrote, "it seemed the aim of Mr. Hale to enlighten my reason, strengthen my judgement, and give me confidence in my own powers of mind, which he estimated much higher than I did." And with David''s encouragement, Sarah had also begun to dedicate more time to her writing. Her observations and notes evolved into poems and short stories. She did not, she would later say, want her personal life in the pages of her works. Yet her personal beliefs, her views, and her passions often infused her characters.

The couple quickly grew their family. While pregnant with her third child, Sarah came down with tuberculosis, and it was feared she and the unborn child would die, victims of a disease that had already struck Sarah''s own family. David refused to accept this. Against doctor''s orders, he took his wife on a tour of New Hampshire. It was late autumn and brisk. David had heard that fresh air was healing and that "frost grapes"-wil.