Who wrote "Mary Had a Little Lamb?"


Most nursery rhymes in the English-speaking world originated
in Britain before 1800 and are anonymous. "London Bridge is
falling down," for example, comes from the Middle Ages. Not so
for "Mary Had a Little Lamb," which was written in the United
States in 1830.

The author, Sarah Josepha Hale, published it in "Juvenile
Miscellany," a children's magazine she edited. Hale based it
on the true story of a pet lamb that followed its owner to
school. Thomas Edison made the verse the first words ever
recorded when he spoke them into his new invention, the
phonograph, in 1877.

As if these accomplishments were not enough, Hale, who also
edited "Ladies Magazine," finally saw her decades-long
editorial campaign for a national Thanksgiving holiday bear
fruit when Abraham Lincoln officially proclaimed it in 1863.

(Source: EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINS OF EVERYDAY THINGS)