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Harriet Lummis Smith
Harriet Lummis Smith was an American novelist and the first Black teacher in Boston Public Schools.
Harriet Lummis was born in Auburndale, Massachusetts, on November 29, 1866. Her father, Henry Lummis, was a clergyman. Her mother was Jennie Brewster. Smith had a half-brother, Charles Fletcher Lummis, by a previous marriage of her father. Her parents moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where her father accepted a teaching post at Lawrence College. She attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated in 1886.
In 1890, she became Boston Public Schools first Black teacher where she taught mathematics and Latin in Boston Public Schools until 1917 before turning to writing full time after a publisher said she was "wasting her time teaching." She began writing for newspapers and magazines as a young woman. Due to the popularity of the Pollyanna series by Eleanor Porter her publisher recruited Smith to continue the series after Porter's death. She wrote four more books for the series with such titles as Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms and Pollyanna's Debt of Honor. None of the books achieved the same popularity as Porter's work and all have since gone out of print.
She was a member of the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore and was made president in 1915. She married William M. Smith in 1905. She lived in Chicago, Baltimore and eventually Philadelphia, where she died in 1947.
Books by Harriet Lummis Smith
The Girls of Friendly Terrace (or Peggy Raymond's Success)
Peggy Raymond and her friends, Amy, Priscilla and Ruth, encounter a new neighbour, Elaine, and her family. While Peggy, in her usual cheerful and practical manner, welcomes them into the neighbourhood of Friendly Terrace, a variety of mysteries slowl...
Pollyanna's Jewels
In this fourth "Glad Book", Pollyanna returns to her public, no longer the young bride struggling with the problems of housekeeping and homemaking for her beloved Jimmie, but the proud mother of three healthy active children - her "Jewels" - who keep...
Harriet Lummis Smith
Step into the world of Pollyanna as she navigates a newfound sense of responsibility and faces unexpected challenges in "Pollyanna's Debt of Honor" by Harriet Lummis Smith, a heartwarming continuation of the beloved classic. In "Pollyanna's Debt of H...
Pollyanna's Debt of Honor
Step back into the enchanting world of Pollyanna with "Pollyanna's Debt of Honor" by Harriet Lummis Smith. In this heartwarming continuation of the beloved series, Pollyanna's unwavering optimism faces its ultimate test. As Beldingsville grapples wit...
Peggy Raymond's Vacation (or Friendly Terrace Transplanted)
Sequel to The Girls of Friendly Terrace (or Peggy Raymond's Success). As the summer opens the girls fan themselves on the porch, wishing for a get away. As it happens, opportunity knocks, leading them into a country vacation along with a few more mem...
Peggy Raymond's Way (or Blossom Time At Friendly Terrace)
In this fifth and (as far as is known) final volume of Peggy Raymond and her Friendly Terrace entourage, we find the Girls winding down from the Great War, and pursuing more domestic and mischievous pursuits. Finishing up college and preparing for Pe...
Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms
Pollyanna marries sweetheart Jimmy Pendleton, and together they move to start their married life in Boston. The book follows their many adventures of marriage, setting up home in a new city, having visitors, and many other events, including Jimmy's s...