Amelia Edith Barr was born at Ulverton, Lancashire, England, March 29, 1831. She was the daughter of the Rev. William Huddleston. Her mother’s family were among the followers of the noted evangelist, George Fox. She was educated in several good schools and colleges and was graduated, at the age of nineteen, from Glasgow high school. In 1850 she was married to Robert Barr, son of a minister of the Scottish Free Kirk. In 1854 Mr. and Mrs. Barr came to America, settling at Austin, and later at Galveston, Texas. Her husband and three sons died in 1857 of yellow fever and Mrs. Barr was obliged to support herself and three daughters with her pen. Two years after Mr. Barr’s death she came to New York city and received immediate encouragement from Mr. Beecher, of the Christian Union, and Robert Bonner, of the New York Ledger. She taught school for two years, meanwhile writing various sketches and miscellaneous articles for magazines and newspapers. The work which gave her the greatest fame, “A Bow of Orange Ribbon,” appeared in serial form in the Ledger. Since 1884 she has devoted her time almost entirely to the writing of novels and short stories. FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT. There are very few who are not acquainted with “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” one of the sweetest children’s stories ever written, but not so many perhaps are acquainted with the interesting life story of its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett. She was born November 24, 1849, in Manchester, England, and while yet attending school she developed a talent for writing short stories and poems and even novels. When her father died her mother brought the family to America in 1865, settling at Newmarket, but a year later removing to Knoxville, Tennessee. She then completed a story which was planned in her thirteenth year, and succeeded in disposing of it to Godey’s Lady’s Book, in which it was published in 1867. Other interesting short stories followed in this and in Peterson’s Magazine, but the turning point of her literary success was “Surly Tim’s Trouble,” which appeared in Scribner’s Monthly in 1872, attracting a great deal of attention. At the invitation of the editor more of her publications were published in Scribner’s, one of the most popular being “That Lass o’ Lowries,” which appeared later in 1877 in book form. Mrs. Hodgson has been twice married, the first time, in 1873, to Dr. Swan M. Burnett, from whom she obtained a divorce in 1898, and the second time, in 1900, to Stephen Townsend, an English author. Mrs. Burnett, by winning a suit against the unauthorized dramatization of “Fauntleroy,” secured for authors of England the control of dramatic rights in their stories, for which Reade and Dickens had spent thousands of pounds in vain. PEARL MARY THERESA CRAIGIE.