Margaret Warner Morley
Encyclopedia
Margaret Warner Morley (February 17, 1858 in Montrose, Iowa
- December 12, 1923 in Washington, D.C.
) was an American educator, biologist and writer, author of many books on nature and biology for children and novel writer.
. She worked as an educator in several schools but her career of teacher was overshadowed by her books.
As early as 1890 she visited Tryon, North Carolina
with the painter Amelia Watson where she resided in the cottage of playwright William Gillette
. She finally acquired her own home in Tryon where she lived for many years.
In one of her many trips she went to Europe to the Val Gardena the vally of toy carvers where she was inspired to write the novel Donkey John of the toy valley.
Some of her documents ar held at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Margaret Warner Morley Collection at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center at Hartford, CT. The collection consists of travel logs and sketchbooks of rural North Carolina, and book manuscripts.
The North Carolina Museum of History owns a collection of the 244 original photographs that Morley donated to the museum in 1914
Drawings by Morley from the original Val Gardena toys from Donkey John of the toy valley
Montrose, Iowa
Montrose is a city in Lee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 957 at the 2000 census. The town is located on the Mississippi River. It is part of the Fort Madison–Keokuk, IA-MO Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
- December 12, 1923 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
) was an American educator, biologist and writer, author of many books on nature and biology for children and novel writer.
Biography
She grew up in Brooklin and graduated from Hunter College in New York. Morley was a suffragetteSuffragette
"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
. She worked as an educator in several schools but her career of teacher was overshadowed by her books.
As early as 1890 she visited Tryon, North Carolina
Tryon, North Carolina
Tryon is a town in Polk County, North Carolina, United States. According to the 2000 Census the population of Tryon was 1,760. The area is a center for equestrian activity and fine arts....
with the painter Amelia Watson where she resided in the cottage of playwright William Gillette
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who is best remembered today for portraying Sherlock Holmes....
. She finally acquired her own home in Tryon where she lived for many years.
In one of her many trips she went to Europe to the Val Gardena the vally of toy carvers where she was inspired to write the novel Donkey John of the toy valley.
Some of her documents ar held at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Margaret Warner Morley Collection at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center at Hartford, CT. The collection consists of travel logs and sketchbooks of rural North Carolina, and book manuscripts.
The North Carolina Museum of History owns a collection of the 244 original photographs that Morley donated to the museum in 1914
Writings
- Song of Life 1891
- Physical culture 1893
- Flowers and Their Friends 1897
- A few familiar flowers: how to love them at home or in school 1897
- Seed babies 1898
- Little Wanderers 1899
- Down north and up along 1900
- Wasps and their ways 1901
- Insect Folk 1903
- Little Mitchell, the Story of a Mountain Squirrel 1904
- The Renewal of Life: How and When to Tell the Story to the Young 1906
- Donkey John of the toy valley. Chicago A. C. McClurg & Co. 1909
- Grasshopper Land 1910
- The Carolina Mountains, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co (1913)
- Will o' the wasps 1913
- The Bee People 1914
- the Apple-Tree Sprite 1915
Drawings by Morley from the original Val Gardena toys from Donkey John of the toy valley