Background

She was born in Blackstone, Massachusetts, in 1854, the only child of Reverend Edmund March Tappan and Lucretia Logée. Her father, a graduate of Dartmouth College and pastor of the Free Baptist Church, was the descendant of Abraham Toppan, who emigrated with his family from Yarmouth, England, and was admitted a freeman of Newbury, Massachussets, in 1637. When she was six her father died, and for the remainder of her childhood she lived at various seminaries, where her mother taught.

Education

She received an A. B. degree at Vassar College in 1875. In 1895 she received an A. M. degree and a Ph. D. in 1896 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

For twenty years she taught school, first at Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Massachussets, from 1875 to 1880, and later at Raymond Academy, Camden, N. J. , where she was associate principal from 1884 to 1894.

In 1897 she became head of the English department of the English High School at Worcester, Massachussets Seven years later, when she was the author of several school books of recognized merit, she gave up teaching to devote all of her time to writing.

She published her first book, Charles Lamb, the Man and the Author, in 1896. In 1900 she published her second, In the Days of Alfred the Great, and the next year three others: In the Days of William the Conqueror, Old Ballads in Prose, and England's Story. By using an informal, lucid style, picturesque details, and well planned, compact organization she realized an ambition, cherished since childhood, of writing books that children would love to read.

For the remainder of her life, except for an occasional year that she devoted to the care of her aged mother, she continued to write reference and textbooks for use in grade and high schools. Many of these are histories: Our Country's Story (1902), The Story of the Greek People (1908), Our European Ancestors (1918), The Story of Our Constitution (1922). In some she tried to acquaint children with the social and political background of historical periods: In the Days of Queen Elizabeth (1902) and In the Days of Queen Victoria (1903). In others, such as American Hero Stories (1906) and Old World Hero Stories (1911), she sought to lay a foundation for the future study of biography. In a series of supplementary readers she provided interesting facts about agriculture and industry: The Farmer and His Friends, Diggers in the Earth, Makers of Many Things, and Travelers and Traveling, all in 1916. In Ella, a Little Schoolgirl of the Sixties (1923) she recounted her own childhood experiences.

Her writing gave her the means of realizing a second long-cherished desire: to provide a home for her mother. She never traveled abroad and but rarely in America, preferring to remain with her mother, who was unable to travel. After her mother's death in 1911, her own established habits kept her at home reading and writing. She died at Worcester, Massachussets.

Achievements

• She is famous for building her literary career writing about famous characters in history and developed an interest in writing children books.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Story of Our Constitution (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Story of Our Constitution IT is a thril...)

  • In the days of Queen Elizabeth (1902) by Eva March Tappan

    (Of all the sovereigns that have worn the crown of England...)

  • Heroes of the Middle Ages (Yesterday's Classics)

    (Recounts the stories of the most important movements in t...)

  • Robin Hood, his book

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The Little Book of the War

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • In the Days of Queen Victoria

    (In The Days of Queen Victoria is the story of Queen Victo...)

  • The Story of the Greek People

    (This early work by Eva March Tappan was originally publis...)

  • A Short History Of England's And America's Literature: By Eva March Tappan

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • When Knights Were Bold (Yesterday's Classics)

    (Spirited and interesting picture of life in castles and m...)

  • The Story of the Roman People an Elementary History of Rome (Classic Reprint)

    (There is little that is of more practical value to the yo...)

Connections

Tappan never married.

Father:

Reverend Edmund March Tappan

Mother:

Lucretia Logée