Sarah Josepha Hale
Who was Sarah Josepha Hale?
American writer and editor (1788–1889)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Sarah Josepha Hale (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, born on October 24, 1788, in Newport, New Hampshire, became one of the most influential literary figures in 19th-century America. As the editor of Godey's Lady's Book, the leading American magazine before the Civil War, she influenced the tastes, values, and domestic ideals of many American women. She passed away on April 30, 1879, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after nearly 50 years as editor and producing a vast collection of work including poetry, fiction, essays, and biography.
Hale's journey to public prominence arose from personal challenges. When her husband, David Hale, died in 1822, she needed to support their five young children and turned to writing for income. Her early writings gained attention, and in 1827 she published the novel Northwood, which explored American national identity and slavery. This success led to her role as editor of the Ladies' Magazine in Boston, making her one of the first female magazine editors in the U.S. In 1837, she moved to Philadelphia to edit Godey's Lady's Book, a position she held until retiring in 1877 at age 89.
As editor, Hale had significant cultural influence. She promoted women's education, nursing as a profession, and founded institutions like Vassar College. She pushed for greater access to higher education and professional fields for women, although she held conservative views on some gender roles. Her editorial columns reached about 150,000 subscribers at the magazine's peak, giving her a major platform for social commentary.
Hale is perhaps most famous for writing the nursery rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb,' published in 1830 in her Poems for Our Children. She also led a lengthy campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, sending letters to presidents, governors, and Congress members for over 17 years. Her efforts were successful in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, largely due to her persistence. She also pushed for the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was dedicated in 1843.
Throughout her life, Hale created an impressive amount of work, including the biographical encyclopedia Woman's Record, or Sketches of All Distinguished Women (1853), detailing the lives of nearly 2,500 women from ancient times to her present. Her career covered a time of great change in American society, and she remained an active writer and editor into her late 80s, submitting her final editorial for Godey's Lady's Book shortly before retiring.
Before Fame
Sarah Josepha Buell grew up in Newport, New Hampshire, in a family that valued learning, a rarity for girls at the time. Most of her early education came from her brother Horatio, who shared his college lessons, and her own avid reading. She taught at a local school and later ran a small school herself before marrying lawyer David Hale in 1813. During their nine years of marriage, David supported her writing, treating her as an intellectual equal.
When David died suddenly from pneumonia in 1822, Hale had to support her family. She briefly tried millinery work before focusing entirely on writing. Her poetry collection, The Genius of Oblivion, published in 1823, and her novel Northwood in 1827, earned her enough recognition that Reverend John Blake asked her to edit his new magazine, the Ladies' Magazine, in Boston. This 1828 editorial role started the public career that shaped the rest of her long life.
Key Achievements
- Edited Godey's Lady's Book for forty years, making it the most widely circulated American magazine before the Civil War
- Authored the nursery rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb,' published in 1830
- Successfully campaigned for President Lincoln's 1863 proclamation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday
- Championed the founding of Vassar College and the advancement of higher education for women
- Compiled Woman's Record (1853), a landmark biographical encyclopedia documenting approximately 2,500 notable women throughout history
Did You Know?
- 01.Hale wrote letters to five consecutive American presidents over seventeen years campaigning for a national Thanksgiving holiday before Lincoln finally proclaimed it in 1863.
- 02.She retired from editing Godey's Lady's Book in 1877 at the age of eighty-nine, making her one of the longest-serving magazine editors in American history.
- 03.Her biographical encyclopedia Woman's Record (1853) documented the lives of approximately 2,500 notable women, spanning from ancient history to the mid-nineteenth century.
- 04.Hale actively lobbied for the founding of Vassar College, which opened in 1861 as one of the first institutions of higher education for women in the United States.
- 05.The nursery rhyme 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' was inspired by an actual incident in which a girl named Mary Sawyer brought her pet lamb to school in Sterling, Massachusetts, though this origin story has been the subject of some historical dispute.