Helen Johnson

Helen Kendrick Johnson was an American writer, poet, and prominent activist opposing the women's suffrage movement.

Helen Kendrick Johnson was born in Hamilton, New York to her father, Asahel Clark Kendrick a professor in Greek at University of Rochester and mother Anne Elizabeth Kendrick (born Hopkins) who died in 1851 after the birth of Helen's third sister. After the death of her mother, Helen aged 7 spent much of her childhood living with her aunt in Clinton, New York until 1860 when she spent time in Savannah, Georgia with her father's brothers leaving in 1861 due to the outbreak of the American civil war. In 1863 she enrolled as a student in the Oread Institute, in Worcester, Massachusetts and studied there until June, 1864. After the end of the civil war she briefly returned to Savannah and spent the rest of her childhood between there, an aunt's house in Utica, New York and her father's house in Rochester, New York where she remained until her marriage.

After marrying the newspaper editor Rossiter Johnson, in 1869 she began writing books, children's literature, and travel articles.

Johnson's papers are held by the New York Public Library.