Lucy Fitch Perkins (July 12, 1865 – March 18, 1937) was an American illustrator and writer of children's books, known best for ''Dutch Twins'' (1911) and its sequels, the ''Twins'' series.

Biography

Lucy Fitch was born on July 12, 1865, in

Maples, Indiana Maples is an unincorporated community in Jefferson Township, Allen County, in the U.S. state of Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 S ...

, to Appleton Howe and Elizabeth (Bennett) Fitch. Her father was a teacher who moved to Maples to co-found a barrel stave factory. Her mother was a teacher. Fitch moved with her mother to

Hopkinton, Massachusetts Hopkinton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, west of Boston. The town is best known as the starting point of the Boston Marathon, held annually on Patriots' Day each April, and as the headquarters for the Dell EMC corpo ...

, to live with her father's parents as her father tried to recover from a financial setback from the

Panic of 1873 The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "Lon ...

. Unhappy with the Hopkinton schools, the family moved to

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

, in 1879. Dwight H

Fitch graduated from high school in 1883 and moved to

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 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 ...

, to attend the

School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachus ...

. She met Dwight H. Perkins in her third year at the school. Fitch started to write children's fiction on a freelance basis for ''Young Folks''. She graduated in 1886 and took a job as an illustrator for the

Prang Prang may refer to: Places * Prang, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a town of Charsadda District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan *Prang Besar, an old name for Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia * Prang Ghar Tehsil or Pran Ghar Subdivision, a subdivisi ...

Educational Company of Boston. A year later, she followed Walter Scott Perry to the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, to become his assistant. Fitch left on August 18, 1891, to marry Perkins and move to

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Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. She initially tended to the household, writing only on occasion. However, after her husband struggled in the aftermath of the

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...

, Perkins began to write to supplement the family income. The Chicago office of the Prang Educational Company employed Perkins for the next 10 years, offering her opportunities to teach and illustrate. In 1905, her husband was appointed chief architect for the Chicago Board of Education, allowing them to support the construction of a new house in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

. In 1906, Perkins published her first work, ''The Goose Girl'', a collection of children's rhymes. A year later, she followed with ''A Book of Joys: A Story of a New England Summer'', but both works had limited popular appeal. In 1911, she published ''The Dutch Twins'', her first major work. The book was inspired by friend Edwin Osgood Grover, who saw a picture Perkins drew of a pair of Dutch children. Grover suggested to Perkins that she design a series centered around the twins. Perkins took the advice, and the ''Twins'' series were a popular success. She published 26 books in the ''Twins'' series for the

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

. For each book, Perkins would try to interview an individual who grew up in the given country to gain an understanding of the particular customs. Later books in the series, such as ''The American Twins of the Revolution'', supplanted history for geography as the basis of the twins' backgrounds. Perkins sold more than 2 million copies of her books and was Houghton Mifflin's most profitable author. Her final book, ''The Dutch Twins and Little Brother'', was published posthumously in 1938. She died in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

, of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

from

coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...

on March 18, 1937; she had recently moved there with her husband in an effort to restore her health. Perkins had two children: Eleanor Ellis, a writer, and Lawrence Bradford, an architect. Perkins' book ''The Dutch Twins'' is known to have inspired children's author

Beverly Cleary Beverly Atlee Cleary (née Bunn; April 12, 1916March 25, 2021) was an American writer of chapter books, children's and young adult fiction. One of America's most successful authors, 91 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide sin ...

to start reading. Perkins also provided illustrations for

Edith Ogden Harrison Edith Ogden Harrison (16 November 1862 – 22 May 1955) was a writer of children's books and fairy tales in the early decades of the 20th century. She was the wife of Carter Harrison, Jr., five-term mayor of Chicago. Biography Edith Ogden w ...

's series of fairy tales, published in the early years of the 20th century. A public school in the Big Oaks neighborhood of Chicago was named after Perkins. The school was built for K-6 students. When it opened, there was an oil painting of Perkins displayed in the hallway near the main entrance. The school and property were later sold and the block was developed with single family homes.

Selected works

* ''Prince Silverwings and Other Fairy Tales'', written by Edith Ogden Harrison (McClurg, 1902) – first of several collaborations with Harrison * ''The Goose Girl: A mother's lap book of rhymes and pictures'' (McClurg, 1906) Before beginning the Twins series Perkins illustrated, and sometimes contributed as editor or writer, to new editions of Aesop's fables, Anderson and Grimm fairy tales, Hawthorne's classical mythology, and Robin Hood.

Twins series (complete)

Geographical series *''The Dutch Twins'' (1911) *''The Japanese Twins'' (1912) *''The Irish Twins'' (1913) *''The Eskimo Twins'' (1914) *''The Mexican Twins'' (1916) *''The Belgian Twins'' (1917) *''The French Twins'' (1918) *''The Scotch Twins'' (1919) *''The Italian Twins'' (1920) *''The Swiss Twins'' (1922) *''The Filipino Twins'' (1923) *''The Farm Twins'' (1928) *''The Pickaninny Twins'' (1931) *''The Chinese Twins'' (1934) *''The Norwegian Twins'' (1933) *''The Spanish Twins'' (1934) *''The Dutch Twins and Little Brother'' (1938) *''The Dutch Twins Primer'' Historical series *''The Cave Twins'' (1915) *''The Spartan Twins'' (1918) *''The Puritan Twins'' (1921) *''The Colonial Twins of Virginia'' (1924) *''The American Twins of 1812'' (1925) *''The American Twins of The Revolution'' (1926) *''The Pioneer Twins'' (1927) *''The Indian Twins'' (1938)

References

* Eleanor Ellis Perkins. ''Eve Among the Puritans: A Biography of Lucy Fitch Perkins''. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1956.
Online biography
(online-literature.com)

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Lucy Fitch 1865 births 1937 deaths American children's writers American children's book illustrators People from Allen County, Indiana Writers from Evanston, Illinois Artists from Evanston, Illinois