Fanny Fern | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Fanny Fern | |
| Born | Sara Payson Willis July 9, 1811 Portland, Maine, US |
| Died | October 10, 1872 (aged 61) Manhattan, New York, US |
| Spouse | Charles Harrington Eldredge
(m. 1837; died 1845)Samuel P. Farrington
(m. 1848; div. 1853) |
| Relatives | Nathaniel Willis (grandfather) Nathaniel Willis (father) Nathaniel Parker Willis (brother) Richard Storrs Willis (brother) |
Fanny Fern (born Sara Payson Willis; July 9, 1811 – October 10, 1872), was an American novelist, children's writer, humorist, and newspaper columnist in the 1850s to 1870s. Her popularity has been attributed to a conversational style and sense of what mattered to her mostly middle-class female readers.
By 1855, Fern was the highest-paid US columnist, commanding $100 per week for her New York Ledger column.[1] A collection of her columns published in 1853 sold 70,000 copies in its first year. Her best-known work, the fictional autobiography Ruth Hall (1854), has become a popular subject among feminist literary scholars.