======================================================================
=                        Mabel_Osgood_Wright                         =
======================================================================

                            Introduction
======================================================================
Mabel Osgood Wright (January 26, 1859 - July 16, 1934) was an American
writer and conservationist. She was an early leader in the Audubon
movement who wrote extensively about nature and birds.


                     Early years and education
======================================================================
Mabel Osgood was the daughter of Samuel and Ellen Haswell (Murdock)
Osgood. She was born in New York City on January 26, 1859, one of
three daughters, and was educated at home and in private schools.
Samuel Osgood was a Harvard-educated Unitarian minister and published
author, who was associated with writers and businessmen including
George Bancroft, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and J. P. Morgan. Osgood
frequently accompanied her father to lectures at the New York
Historical Society and other cultural events.


                               Career
======================================================================
On September 25, 1884, she was married to James Osborne Wright, an
Englishman; after an extended visit to England, the couple moved to
Fairfield, Connecticut.

Although Wright wished to attend medical school at Cornell, she was
encouraged by her husband and father to pursue writing instead.
Wright's first printed work (apart from a few verses published
anonymously in the 'Evening Post' and the 'New York Times'), was the
essay "A New England May Day", which appeared in the 'Evening Post' in
1893. This work was collected with other pieces into her first book,
'The Friendship of Nature', published by Macmillan in 1894. The book
was illustrated with photographs taken by Osgood, and was praised by
Wendell Holmes.

In 1894 and 1895, Wright studied at the American Museum of Natural
History under Joel Asaph Allen and Frank Chapman, which culminated in
the publication of her 'Birdcraft: A Field Book of Two Hundred Song,
Game, and Water Birds' (1895), one of the most popular bird guides of
the early 20th century. A prototype of the modern field guide to birds
for a popular audience, 'Birdcraft' featured color reproductions from
John James Audubon and other artists to illustrate species commonly
encountered at home or in a neighboring park. A later edition credits
Louis Agassiz Fuertes as a contributing artist. Frank Chapman
described it as "one of the first and most successful bird manuals."
Two years later, Wright's 'Citizen Bird: Scenes from Bird-life in
Plain English for Beginners,' a collaboration with Elliott Coues,
appeared.

Wright helped organize the Connecticut Audubon Society, and became its
first president in 1898, a position that she held for 26 years. Under
her directorship, the Society supported several conservation
legislative bills, including the International Migratory Bird Treaty
Act in 1918. From 1905 to 1928, Wright was a director of the National
Association of Audubon Societies (now the National Audubon Society).
She also served as the editor of the Audubon Society's 'Bird Lore'
from 1899 to 1910 alongside William Dutcher',' a leading ornithology
journal that acted as a precursor to 'Audubon Magazine,' and remained
a contributing editor until her death'.'

Her work at 'Bird Lore' included children's education, and she helped
to establish "Bird Day" which promoted educational programming and
conservation training for school children. Wright became an associate
member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1895, and was one of
the first three women raised to elective membership in 1901. Joining
her were Florence Merriam Bailey and Olive Thorne Miller.

Wright pioneered bird protection by establishing and designing
Birdcraft Sanctuary in 1914, near her home in Fairfield. She obtained
financial backing for the sanctuary from her friend, Annie Burr
Jennings, a Standard Oil heiress. The refuge is the oldest private
songbird sanctuary in the United States, and was designated as a
National Historic Landmark in 1993.

From her beginnings as a writer about children, nature, and outdoor
life, Wright's reception from the public was cordial. However, when
she began to publish works of fiction, she concealed her identity as
their author until they had won recognition independently, taking the
pseudonym of "Barbara". Much of the material to which she gave
attractive literary expression she found in the large garden at her
home in Fairfield.

Although Wright is remembered more for her nature writing, some
aspects of her fiction are notable.  Some of these romances were
unconventional in form, combining passages of fictional narrative with
letters, diary entries, and nonfictional pieces of autobiography,
social criticism, and gardening lore. It is true that her fictional
range was narrow, limited demographically to the upper classes of
Manhattan and New England and emotionally to scenes of domestic piety
and sentimentality. But her observations of changing social patterns
(the "new magnates" of the new century and increased suburbanization)
and of the growth of feminism are worthwhile. Her ambivalence toward
the changing role of women is interesting, with sympathy on the one
hand and shrill attacks on careerism on the other.

On July 16, 1934, she succumbed to hypertensive myocardial disease
with angina, and died in Fairfield. She is buried in Oak Lawn Cemetery
in that town.

In 1998, Wright was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of
Fame.


                           Selected works
======================================================================
*
*
*
*
*
*  In the 1911 reprint edition, no name appears on the title page save
"The Gardener."
*
*
*  Under the pseudonym "Barbara."
*
*
*  Title page has "By Mabel Osgood Wright (Barbara)".
*


Mabel Osgood Wright's work also includes the following.  Several of
the works of fiction first appeared under the pseudonym of "Barbara".

* 'Tommy-Anne and the Three Hearts: A Nature Story' (1896)
* 'Wabeno, the Magician' (1899), a sequel to 'Tommy-Anne'
* 'The Dream Fox Story Book'  (1900)
* 'Dogtown' (1902)
* 'The Woman Errant' (1904)
* '[https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20160812 The Open
Window]' (1908)
* 'The Love that Lives' (1911)
* 'The Stranger at the Gate' (1913)
* 'My New York' (1926)
* 'Eudora's Men' (1931)


License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabel_Osgood_Wright