Clara Augusta Jones Trask (, Jones;

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

s, Clara Augusta and Hero Strong; June 22, 1839 – January 2, 1905) was a popular 19th-century American writer from

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, with several hundred titles to her credit. A

dime novel The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, r ...

ist, she wrote in a variety of genres and styles. In the 1895 edition of '' The Granite Monthly'' it was said that, "It is doubtful if any woman contributor to current periodicals has received larger returns for her work than has Mrs. Clara Augusta Trask, with the exception of those who own

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

on plays."

Biography

Clara Augusta Jones was born June 22, 1839, in

Farmington, New Hampshire Farmington is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,722 at the 2020 census. Farmington is home to Blue Job State Forest, the Tebbetts Hill Reservation, and Baxter Lake. The town center, where 3,824 peopl ...

, within a half mile of the childhood home of Vice-President

Henry Wilson Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was an American politician who was the 18th vice president of the United States from 1873 until his death in 1875 and a senator from Massachusetts from 1855 to ...

, and was the daughter of Jeremiah Jones, and the former Tamson Roberts. Her grandmother on her father's side was the accomplished daughter of Col.

Ichabod Crane Ichabod Crane is a fictional character and the protagonist in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Crane is portrayed, in the original work, as well as in most adaptations, as a tall, lanky individual with a scarecro ...

, an officer in the British army, and a lineal descendant of

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1516/1517 – 19 January 1547), Order of the Garter, KG, was an English nobleman, politician and poet. He was one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry and was the last known person executed at the instan ...

. Her maternal grandfather served in the Revolutionary War. Winifred Winthrop Or The Lady of Atherton Hall

Trask's first published article appeared when she was 13 years of age, and thereafter she wrote continuously, for newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. Perhaps her best known articles were the "Kate Thorn" papers and essays, which were copied widely, as well as translated into several languages for use in foreign periodicals. The Lippincotts of Philadelphia published a volume of her poems, and she was the author of several humorous books, the most noted of which was ''The Adventures of a Bashful Bachelor''. Her poems, sketches, and serials appeared in ''Arthur's Home Magazine'', ''Ballou's Literary Companion, Monthly, and Pictorial'', ''Banner Weekly'', ''Dollar Newspaper'' (

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

), ''Gleason's'', ''Golden Days'', ''Graham's Illustrated Magazine'', ''The Granite Monthly'', ''The Hearthstone'', ''Lady's Friend'', ''Leslie's Monthly'', ''The New York Weekly'', ''Our Boys and Girls'', ''Peterson's Magazine'', ''Saturday Journal'', and ''Saturday Night''. In the 1870s, she had a column in the ''New York Weekly''. She wrote using the pen names Clara Augusta and Hero Strong. She married Elbridge S. Trask, and resided in Framingham Centre,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, in one of the old historic mansions of that town. She was a member of the

New England Woman's Press Association The New England Woman's Press Association (NEWPA) was founded by six Boston newspaper women in 1885 and incorporated in 1890. By the turn of the century it had over 150 members. NEWPA sought not only to bring female colleagues together and further ...

, of the Daughters of New Hampshire, of the Gen. J. G. Foster W. R. C., of the Framingham Woman's Club, and was a well-known worker in the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. Clara Trask died January 2, 1905.

Selected works

As Clara Augusta Jones Trask, Clara Augusta Jones, or Clara Augusta

* ''Fatal Glove'' * ''Winifred Winthrop, or, The lady of Atherton Hall'', 1882 * ''The Parson's Secret Sin'', "The Plaindealer: Selected Short Stories", 1890–1893 * ''Patience Pettigrew's perplexities. Being a veracious history of the experiences of Patience Pettigrew, relict of the late lamented Josiah Pettigrew, esq. ...'', 1890 * ''The adventures of a bashful bachelor : a humorous story'', 1890

As Hero Strong

* ''Born to command, or, The mistress of Hillmere'', 1893 * ''Found dead, or, The Charles River mystery'', 1892 * ''A beautiful womans sin; or, The scarred arm'', 1890 * ''Yates' Ranch'' (Savannah Tribune: Selected Short Stories, 1906-1909)

References

Attribution

* *

Biography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trask, Clara Augusta Jones 1839 births 1905 deaths 19th-century American writers 19th-century American women writers 19th-century pseudonymous writers People from Farmington, New Hampshire Pseudonymous women writers Dime novelists