Kate Douglas Wiggin

Kate Douglas Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1856. After her father's death her mother moved the family to Maine, and later to California. There she trained as a kindergarten teacher, and in 1878 she opened the Silver Street Kindergarten in San Francisco, the first free kindergarten in California, for children from poor families. With her sister Nora she also started a training school for kindergarten teachers, and the two later wrote books about education together. She married Samuel Bradley Wiggin in 1881; he died suddenly in 1889, and in 1895 she married George Christopher Riggs. To raise money for the kindergarten she wrote The Story of Patsy and The Birds' Christmas Carol, which became popular. Her best-known novel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903), follows a lively, imaginative girl who is sent to live with two strict aunts in a small Maine town. It became a bestseller and was adapted for the stage and for several films. She also wrote an autobiography, My Garden of Memory. She died in 1923.

Kate Douglas Wiggin is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia