1831-1905 · American children's author and editor of St. Nicholas magazine
About Mary Mapes Dodge
Mary Mapes Dodge (1831-1905) was an American writer and editor from New York City, the daughter of the scientist James J. Mapes, to whom she dedicated this book. Widowed young with two sons, she began writing to support them; Hans Brinker (1865) was her first great success. From 1873 until her death she edited St. Nicholas, the leading American magazine for children, which published work by Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and many others.
On a cold December morning in Holland, fifteen-year-old Hans Brinker and his twelve-year-old sister Gretel skate on the canal near the village of Broek on wooden runners Hans has carved himself. Their family is very poor.