Dodge, Mary Elizabeth Mapes
(26 January 1831?–21 August 1905)
- Mary Jane Horstman
Extract
Dodge, Mary Elizabeth Mapes (26 January 1831?–21 August 1905), editor and author, was born in New York City, the daughter of James Jay Mapes, an agricultural reformer, and Sophia Furman. She and her siblings were educated at home, mainly by their father, a brilliant but impecunious self-taught chemist, inventor, and publisher. In a home where intellectual endeavors were valued as highly as material goods, the Mapes children frequently encountered scientists, poets, musicians, journalists, and statesmen, giving them access to a truly liberal education. Lizzie, as the young Mary Elizabeth was known, was an avid reader of English literature, and by her teens she was assisting her father in editorial duties....
