Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe (1850-1943), an American author, wrote books for adults and nonsense verse and stories for children. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1917 for Julia Ward Howe, a biography of her mother. She also wrote an autobiography, Stepping Westward (1931). Richards had a genius for writing nonsense verses, collected under such titles as Tirra Lirra (1932) and The Hottentot and Other Ditties (1939). She was born on Feb. 27, 1850, in Boston, Massachusetts. She died on Jan. 14, 1943.
