Serendipity: Why it’s so perfect to find “Mary Had a Little Lamb” in CW
I won’t repeat the Chinook version of the US children’s rhyme, and song, “Mary Had a Little Lamb“, today.
The author (image credit: Wikipedia)
But, I want to add to the story:
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (1788-1879), Horatio Hale’s mom, wrote the English original, we’re told!
Raised by parents who, exceptional for their time, believed in equal education for girls, Sarah also helped create the US holiday of Thanksgiving as well as Vassar College, and was one the country’s first female novelists, writing one of the first novels about American slavery.
A longtime advocate for women’s rights, she was also considered quite proper and moral, and was deeply respected by conservatives. A feast day in the calendar of the Episcopal Church is devoted to her.
Horatio of course was the first linguistic scientist to document Chinuk Wawa.
Silhouette of Sarah Josepha Hale, 1842 (image credit: Wikipedia)
What an interesting family!
