Literature Trail

Lucy Larcom
The ninth of ten children of a sea captain, Lucy Larcom (1824-93) led a remarkable life starting with her early days as a "mill girl" in the Lowell textile mills, where she worked to earn money for her family.

She published her first poems about the experience in local magazines and caught the attention of poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who became a lifelong friend.

She went on to become a teacher in 1846 in the largely unsettled state of Illinois, and also pursued her education there. Returning to her native Beverly in 1852, Larcom continued to write poetry, song lyrics, stories, and essays while also teaching at Wheaton Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts. Her book A New England Girlhood (1884) remains a classic recollection of childhood in early America. In it she writes, "We were rather a young nation... The edge of George Washington's little hatchet… flashed keenly on our young eyes and ears in the reading books."

Gravesite of Lucy Larcom
Address: Central Cemetery, Hale Street, Beverly

Beverly Public Library
Address: 32 Essex Street, Beverly
Phone: 978-921-6062
Website: www.noblenet.org/beverly
(The library contains works by Larcom.)