Annie Haven Thwing (July 4, 1851 – June 5, 1940), also known as A.H. Thwing or Anne Haven Thwing, was an American historian and children's author. Her book for children, ''Chicken Little'', with illustrations by Nelly Littlehale Umbstaetter, appeared in 1899; as the title suggests, the book re-tells the old story of a chicken who believes the sky is falling. As an historian Thwing compiled an enormous card index of subjects related to the history of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. She donated the index to the Massachusetts Historical Society, where the cards "occupied seventy-four library drawers in the catalog room." She also created a 3-dimensional model of the town of Boston as it appeared in 1775, based on her research. The model now resides on public display in the

Old South Meeting House The Old South Meeting House is a historic Congregational church building located at the corner of Milk and Washington Streets in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, built in 1729. It gained fame as the organizing point for th ...

. In 1920 her book on Boston history, ''The Crooked & Narrow Streets of the Town of Boston 1630-1822'', reached the ''Boston Globe'' best-seller list. At the time the book sold for five dollars. In addition to her work on Boston history she wrote about Orr's Island, Maine, where her family maintained a residence. In the course of her life she corresponded with a number of notables including

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...

, Fanny Bowditch Dixwell Holmes,

Alice James Alice James (August 7, 1848 – March 6, 1892) was an American diarist, sister of novelist Henry James and philosopher and psychologist William James. Her relationship with William was unusually close, and she seems to have been badly affec ...

, Charles Franklin Thwing,

Horace Howard Furness Horace Howard Furness (November 2, 1833 – August 13, 1912) was an American Shakespearean scholar of the 19th century. Life and career Horace Furness was the son of the Unitarian minister and abolitionist William Henry Furness (1802–1896), ...

, and

Edward Everett Hale Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as " The Man Without a Country", published in '' Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union ...

. She also contributed to charitable causes such as the Massachusetts Infant Asylum.

References

External links

* * WorldCat
Thwing, Annie Haven 1851-
* Open Library
Works by Annie Haven Thwing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thwing, Annie Haven American children's writers 1851 births 1940 deaths Writers from Boston American women historians American women children's writers Historians from Massachusetts

References

Further reading

Works by Thwing

About Thwing

External links