Wiggin, Kate Douglas (1856-1923), was an American writer of books for children. She is best remembered for her novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903). Rebecca Randall, the bright young heroine, leaves Sunnybrook Farm to live with her mother’s sisters after her father’s death. The novel’s characters, places, and events are taken from Wiggin’s childhood and later life in Maine. Her other notable children’s novels include The Birds’ Christmas Carol (1887) and Mother Carey’s Chickens (1911). Wiggin also wrote books for adults and an autobiography, My Garden of Memory (1923).
Wiggin was born on Sept. 28, 1856, in Philadelphia. In 1878, she helped establish in San Francisco the first free kindergarten west of the Rocky Mountains. She died on Aug. 23, 1923.
