Harriet Mann Miller
Harriet Mann Miller (birth name: Harriet Mann ; born June 25, 1831 in Auburn , New York , † December 25, 1918 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American writer who worked under the pseudonyms Olive Thorne , Harriet M. Miller or Olive Thorne Miller wrote children's books that were about a bleak childhood, but also about nature and the animal world. She achieved widespread fame in particular through numerous popular scientific works on ornithology .
Life
Harriet Mann, the daughter of a banker , grew up as the eldest of four children in numerous cities in Ohio , Wisconsin and Illinois , so that her school attendance took place only irregularly.
In 1854 she married the businessman Watts T. Miller and lived first in Chicago and after 1875 in Brooklyn . After a few years as a housewife and mother, she began her literary work in 1870 after raising her four children born between 1856 and 1868. In the following years she wrote autobiographical books under the pseudonyms Olive Thorne, Harriet M. Miller or Olive Thorne Miller about desolate childhoods, but also about nature and the animal world. Her first natural history book, Little folks in feathers and fur, and others in neither (1875), was a well-researched account of an invertebrate and vertebrate .
But she achieved fame in particular through her numerous books on the world of birds, which were written because of her interest in ornithology, which she began in 1880. The books were characterized by a precise depiction of the birds in their living environment. While their descriptions were often anthropomorphic , the facts were accurate and thus contributed to a growing interest in natural history . Her first book on ornithology under the title Bird-Ways appeared in 1885 under her pseudonym Olive Thorne Miller, which has been used since 1879. Because of the high level of research and observation, her books have also gained recognition among professional biologists.
Works such as the short story O Wondrous Singers from In Nesting Time (1888) appeared in anthologies such as Stedman and Hutchinson. A Library of American Literature: An Anthology in Eleven volumes , while their works about nature and animals in the (1891) magazine Popular Science Monthly , or in that of John Henry Gurney published The house sparrow (1885) published.
After the death of her husband, she moved to Los Angeles in 1904 and continued her literary work there.
Publications
- Little folks in feathers and fur, and others in neither , 1875, new edition 1910
- Queer Pets at Marcy’s , 1880
- Little people of Asia , 1883
- Bird-ways , 1885
- In nesting time , 1888, new edition 1893
- Little brothers of the air , 1892
- Funny friends , 1892
- A Bird-Liver in the West , 1894, reprinted 1900
- Our Home Pets , 1894
- Four-handed folk , 1896
- Upon the tree-tops , 1897
- The first book of birds , 1899
- The childrens' book of birds , 1901, new edition 1915
- The second book of birds: bird families , 1901
- True bird stories from my note-books , 1903
- Kristy's queer Christmas 1904
- With the birds in Maine , 1904
Web links
- Keir Brooks Sterling (Editor): Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists , p. 538, ISBN 0-31323-047-1 , 1997
- Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, Joy Dorothy Harvey (editors): The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: LZ , p. 897, ISBN 0-41592-040-X , 2000
- Florence Merriam Bailey: Olive Thorne Miller . In: The Condor , Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 69-73, March 1919
- Proof of publication in archive.org
- Proof of publication in the Open Library
- Entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica (top of the online version)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Miller, Harriet Mann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Man, Harriet; Thorne, Olive; Miller, Harriet M .; Miller, Olive Thorne |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 25, 1831 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Auburn , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 25, 1918 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California |