Lillie Vanderveer Albrecht

Background

Ethnicity: Lillie was a descendant of seventeenth-century English Puritans, Nantucket Quakers, and Dutch settlers on Long Island.

Lillie Albrecht was born on January 2, 1894, in Monroe, New York.

Career

Lillie Albrecht began working as assistant children’s librarian at the Westfield Athenaeum in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1927, and was the first curator of its Edwin Smith Historical Museum, serving from 1928 to 1952.

In Westfield, Albrecht became interested in the town’s three centuries of history. She started writing short stories for children set among the real people and places of western Massachusetts and created the story of fictional antique doll Deborah. The stories she wrote about Deborah’s adventures in Westfield’s history eventually became the full-length children’s book Deborah Remembers. Publishers at first turned down a book about a doll’s memoirs, but encouraged Albrecht to write more historical children’s stories. She then wrote Hannah’s Hessian, which appeared in 1958 and was an immediate success; soon her publisher was eager to publish Deborah Remembers. Deborah was followed by three more stories set in Westfield and western Massachusetts in the colonial and Revolutionary eras.

Albrecht also wrote numerous radio scripts, plays, and stories, all aimed at the juvenile market.

Achievements

• Lillie Albrecht is best known as the author of a series of girl’s mysteries set in historical times which included Hannah's Hessian (1958) Deborah Remembers (1960), The Grist Mill Secret (1962), and The Spinning Wheel Secret (1965).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Deborah Remembers

    (If you should visit the Edwin Smith Historical Museum at ...)

    1960
  • The Spinning Wheel Secret

    (Children's historical fiction, ages 9-12.)

    1965
  • Hannah's Hessian 1958
  • The Grist Mill Secret 1962

Membership

Albrecht was a member of the Massachusetts Library Association, the Western Masschusetts Library Association, and the Western Hampden Historical Society.

Connections

Spouse:

Ira Werner Albrecht

granddaughter :

Susanne Alleyn

References

• Contemporary Authors A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields
  2008