Eva March Tappan’s A Friend in the Library series is a comprehensive guide to the writings of six seminal American writers, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In this volume, the author focuses on children’s literature and the examples produced by these great writers, offering detailed descriptions and background information for each. This book is highly recommended for those with an interest in children’s literature and its history in America. March Tappan (1854 - 1930) was an American author and teacher. Other notable works by this author include: Adventures & Achievements (1900), Poems & Rhymes (1900), and In the Days of Queen Elizabeth (1902). Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author. This book was first published in 1909.