| Notes |
- Adelaide F. Samuels (Adelaide Florence (Samuels) Bassett)
Born 24 September 1845, in Boston, Massachusetts, Adelaide Samuels was the
second child of Emanuel and Abigail (Zanka) Samuels. [1] Her elder brother,
Edward Augustus, was born in Boston on 4 July 1836. As sometimes happens with
female authors of children's books, more information is available about the
male members of Samuels' family than about Adelaide Samuels herself. A
biographical entry on her brother in the Dictionary of American Biograp
notes that Emanuel Samuels "was interested in outdoor life and encouraged [his
son, who became an ornithologist in his studies in natural history." [
Adelaide Samuels attended a district school in Milton, Mass., and later became
a teacher. In the interim, her brother, who worked for the Massachusetts State
Board of Agriculture for twenty years (1860-80), had started writing "for the
press" early in his career (DAB). He was also involved in at least some
writing for children, for in January, 1867, the premier issue of Oliver
Optic's Magazine included his name among those who would be contributing
articles to the magazine. [3] In June, 1869, he married Susan Blagge Caldwell
(1848 - 1931), who had also been a schoolteacher and also became an author of
books and articles for juveniles. Susan Blagge Caldwell Samuels's six-volume
series, Springdale Stories, was issued in 1870 by Lee & Shepard, the publisher
that issued Adelaide Samuels' first series the following year. It's thus
tempting to speculate that Adelaide Samuels' brother and sister-in-law may
have helped influence her work or its publication.
Samuels' first series, Dick and Daisy, chronicled the gradual rise of t
orphaned siblings, Daisy and Dick Travers. It received a brief, but favorable,
review in Harper's. (The reviewer felt it was "nearly if not quite as good" as
Amanda Douglas's Kathie Stories.) Samuels continued the characters' adventures
the following year in the four-volume Dick Travers Abroad, and, several years
later, added a single volume Daisy Travers; or, The Girls of Hive Hall (1876).
She also published several articles in juvenile periodicals, includi
least two in St Nicholas in the late 1870s. [4]
In 1891, Adelaide Samuels married Orville Bassett in New Bedford, Mass. She
published at least one work after her marriage, a collection of nursery rhymes
titled Father Gander's Melodies for Mother Goose's Grandchildren (1894). [5]
Her entry in Woman's Who's Who of America from 1914-15 notes that she was a
Presbyterian, a member of the Civic Club and of the Guild and Grange, that her
recreational activities included "music [and] reading," [6] and that she
"Favors woman['s] suffrage." No information about her date of death has been
located.
Notes
[1] Information about Samuels family is from Ancestry World Tree: St. Paja's
Tree, created and maintained by Paula Reed; accessed via Ancestry Plus 17 May
2003.
[2] Additional information about Edward Augustus Samuels appears in the
biographical sketch for his wife, Mrs. S. B. C. Samuels.
[3] Raymond Kilgour, Lee & Shepard: Publishers for the People (Shoe String
Press, 1965): 66, 93.
[4] An online index is available for St Nicholas at FictionMags. The URL for
St. Nicholas periodically changes as information about other periodicals is
added to the site, but can also be accessed via the site's title inde
The online index to St. Nicholas shows Samuels' two contributions as a non-
fiction piece, "How to Make and Stock an Aquarium" from 1876 and "Back of the
Waterfall (A Fish Fairy Tale)" in 1879.
[5] The National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints shows only one other work by
Samuels: Lottie Eames; or, "Do your best, and leave the rest," from 1873.
[6] Her interest in music may also reflect a family background, for her
brother actually published music for a period.
Print Sources
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography
Dictionary of American Biography
Lee & Shepard, Publishers for the People
Woman's Who's Who of America, 1914-15
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Bassett Family Association Database
1845 - 1941 (95 years)