Sara Jane Lippincott

Not long after she returned home, in 1845 and 1846, she started writing using the pen name, Grace Greenwood.[6] The earliest writing of Lippincott was in the form of poetry and children's stories, which she published in local papers. In 1844, she drew national attention, at age 21, with a poem published in the New York Mirror, then under the editorship of George Pope Morris and Nathaniel Parker Willis.[7] Soon after, she was writing for the Home Journal and other literary magazines of the day,[1] under both her given name and her pseudonym. In the February 14, 1846 issue of the Home Journal, The Wife's Appeal, a poem by Sara J. Clarke, is published just above Tit-for-Tat, a story by Grace Greenwood. By October 1849, Godey's Lady's Book listed her as an assistant editor and she was also editor of Godey's Dollar Newspaper.

For six or eight years, her summer home was New Brighton. In winter, she was in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City, writing for Whittier, or for Willis and Morris, or for Neal's Gazette, or for Godey. Lippincott was the first "lady correspondent" in Washington, D.C., beginning her work in that line with letters to a Philadelphia paper in 1850.[9] That year, many of her early sketches and letters were collected and republished by Ticknor & Fields under the name of Greenwood Leaves.[10] She would go on to become a correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post. She was a highly respected journalist and consistently argued for the reform of women's roles and rights.[11] She joined the National Era, a weekly abolitionist newspaper, and copyedited the serialized original version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as well as writing columns, travel letters, and articles. Her staunch abolitionist views contributed to the ongoing national controversy.

Lippincott's poetry received significant critical attention. A published collection, Poems (1851), included passionate poetry and references to her intimate friendship to Anna Phillips, indicating an acceptance of intimate same sex friendships.[12] Also that year, she published History of My Pets. Sophia Hawthorne wrote that her husband, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, considered it "the best children's book he has ever seen".[13]

In 1853, she made her first visit to Europe,[1] on an assignment for The New York Times, having the distinction of being the first woman reporter on the Times payroll.[14] She spent a little over a year abroad, which, in the dedication to her daughter of one of her juvenile books, she calls "the golden year of her life".[15] Her accounts of her travels were well-received contributions to literature of the day. The correspondence was collected immediately after her return, and published under the title of Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe.[16] Upon her return, she also made frequent excursions into California, writing vivid descriptions of the land.[5] In the fall of 1855, she published Merrie England, the first of a series of books of foreign travel for children.[7] Nathaniel Hawthorne criticized her travel letters, calling her an "ink-stained woman" and claiming he could do as well. Despite this, Lippincott seems to have gotten along amiably with Hawthorne's family. She dedicated her children's book Recollections of My Childhood, and Other Stories to his children Julian and Una Hawthorne.

The Little Pilgrim masthead, 1855

On October 17, 1853, she married Leander K. Lippincott, of Philadelphia,[7] who was a correspondent for several New York papers.[17] That year, Lippincott and her husband started The Little Pilgrim,[18] a monthly American children's magazine devoted to the amusement, instruction, and well-being of children.[19] She was soon producing magazine articles and essays, her contributions conveying historical and biographical information.[1] In this paper, Louisa May Alcott made her debut as a writer of children's stories.[17] Collected from time to time, and published by Ticknor & Fields, they made a juvenile library numbering nearly a dozen volumes, remarkable for the felicitous manner in which they conveyed historical information.[19]

On October 3, 1855, they had a daughter, Annie Grace. In the spring of 1856, a volume, entitled A Forest Tragedy, and other Tales, appeared; and in the fall of 1857, Stories and Legends of History and Travel, was the second of her travel series.[7]

Distinguishing herself as a lecturer on literary topics,[20] Lippincott also lectured extensively before and during the Civil War on her abolitionist stance and to other social issues, such as prison and asylum reform, as well as the abolition of capital punishment. During the war, Lippincott was a lecturer to soldiers and at United States Sanitary Commission Sanitary Fairs.[19] President Abraham Lincoln referred to her as "Grace Greenwood the Patriot".[21] However, women's rights became the focus of her speeches, particularly after the war. Her writings from this period were republished in Records of Five Years (1867). By the 1870s, Lippincott wrote primarily for the New York Times. Her articles focused mainly on women's issues, such as advocating for Fanny Kemble's right to wear trousers, Susan B. Anthony's right to vote and all women's right to receive equal pay for equal work.[12]

Lippincott's summer cottage, Manitou, Colorado, 1876

Sara Lippincott (1895)

The marriage was not a happy union. After her husband fled the United States in 1876 to escape prosecution for misappropriation of government funds, Lippincott continued her writing and resumed lecturing in order to support herself and her daughter,[12] who trained for a career on the stage.[20]

By 1879, Lippincott was residing in London, having moved to Europe with her daughter. For the ten years preceding this, she had done most work and won most distinction in journalism, principally in articles contributed from Washington, to the New York Tribune and the New York Times, on national and political questions, which she has handled in a patriotic way, showing an unusual knowledge of political history and of the construction, principles and tactics of the two opposing parties of the United States and time. She had also contributed to the New York Times, and a leading California journal, several series of letters from Europe—principally from London.[22] She worked for the London Journal, and also wrote a biography, Queen Victoria: Her Girlhood and Womanhood (1883). In 1887, she returned to the United States and continued to work.

In 1895, she was living on Capitol Hill with her daughter, and was engaged upon the piece, "Recollections of Washington". But as much as she loved the capitol city, her health was better when she was abroad.[9]

• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Brigham, Johnson (1895). The Midland Monthly. Vol. 3 (Public domain ed.). Johnson Brigham.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Cleveland, Charles Dexter (1864). A Compendium of American Literature, chronologically arranged, with biographical Sketches of the Authors, and Selections from their works: On the plan of the Authors "Compendium of English Literature" and "English Literature of the XIXth Century" (Public domain ed.). Biddle.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Faithfull, Emily (1879). Victoria Magazine. Vol. 33 (Public domain ed.). Emily Faithfull.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Hill, Thomas Edie (1890). Hill's Album of Biography and Art: Containing Portraits and Pen-sketches of Many Persons ... : Together with Chapters Relating to History, Science, and Important Work in which Prominent People Have Been Engaged at Various Periods of Time (Public domain ed.). Danks & Company.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Holloway, Laura Carter (1889). The Woman's Story: As Told by Twenty American Women (Public domain ed.). Hurst.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Leypoldt, F. (1904). The Publishers Weekly. Vol. 65, Part 2 (Public domain ed.). F. Leypoldt.
• This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Parton, James (1869). Eminent Women of the Age: Being Narratives of the Lives and Deeds of the Most Prominent Women of the Present Generation (Public domain ed.). S. M. Betts & Company. pp. 147-163. This book has multiple authors. The chapter titled "Grace Greenwood,—Mrs. Lippincott" is by Joseph B. Lyman.

• McElroy, Janice H.; Stangil, Mary Ann; Druse, Margaret D. (1 June 1983). Our hidden heritage: Pennsylvania women in history. Pennsylvania Division, American Association of University Women. ISBN 9780961147600.