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8/31/1908 - 1/15/1981
Humorist and children's author Hildegarde Lockridge was born in Franklin in 1908.
Born in Franklin, Pennsylvania in 1908, Hildegarde (Dolson) Lockridge became a distinguished writer of historical, children's, and mystery books. She attended Allegheny College and worked as both a copywriter and a freelance writer. She died in Columbus, North Carolina in 1981.
Hildegarde (Dolson) Lockridge was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania, on August 31, 1908. Her parents were Clifford and Katharine Dolson. In May 1965, Dolson married writer Richard Lockridge.
Lockridge studied at Allegheny College from 1926 to 1929. In 1933, she moved to New York City and worked as an advertising copywriter for Bamberger, Franklin-Simon, Gimbel's, and Macy's. In 1938, she devoted the rest of her life to freelance writing with the publication of her first novel How about a Man (1938).
Lockridge published her work under her maiden name and is credited with writing nearly 20 books—among which are historical books, children's books, and mysteries. Her very popular collection of stories, We Shook the Family Tree (1946), is an anecdotal account of her youth in Pennsylvania as well as of her first jobs in New York. It focuses mainly on a mysterious character named Lucy Ramsdale and is set in Wingate, Connecticut. She also frequented the pages of the New Yorker with humorous contributions.
Lockridge died on January 15, 1981, in Columbus, North Carolina.
Novels
- How about a Man. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1938.
- We Shook the Family Tree. New York: Random House, 1946.
- The Husband Who Ran Away. New York: Random House, 1948.
- The Form Divine. New York: Random House, 1950.
- (With Elizabeth Stevenson Ives) My Brother Adlai. New York: Morrow, 1956.
- A Growing Wonder. New York: Random House, 1957.
- Guess Whose Hair I'm Wearing. New York: Random House, 1963.
- Open the Door. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1966.
- Heat Lightning. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1968.
- To Spite Her Face. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1971.
- A Dying Fall. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1973.
- Please Omit Funeral. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975.
- Beauty Sleep. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1977.
Books
- Sorry to Be So Cheerful. New York: Random House, 1955.
- The Great Oildorado: The Gaudy and Turbulent Years of the First Oil Rush: Pennsylvania 1859-1880. New York: Random House, 1959.
- William Penn: Quaker Hero. New York: Random House, 1962.
- Disaster at Johnstown: The Great Flood. New York: Random House, 1965.
- Hildegarde (Dolson) Lockridge. The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors. The Gale Group. 6 Dec. 2000. Thomson Corporation. 4 Mar. 2001. <www.galenet.com>.
- Reilly, John M., ed. Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, 2nd Ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985.
Photo Credit: J.B. Lippincott Company. "Photograph of Hildegarde Dolson." 1970. Photograph. Cropped to 4x3. Source: Wikimedia.