Marion Florence Lansing

Marion Florence Lansing was born in Waverley, Massachusetts, and grew up in Cambridge. She attended Cambridge Latin School and traveled abroad before going to Mount Holyoke College. She then spent a year studying at Radcliffe College. While there, she discovered the Harvard Library's collection of fairy and folk stories, picked out the ones she liked best, and arranged to publish them in seven volumes between 1905 and 1910, beginning with Rhymes and Stories and ending with Page, Esquire, and Knight, which contains some of the legendary heroes of the early Middle Ages, including King Arthur, Roland and the Peers of Charlemagne, and the Chevalier Bayard. The books have been considered staples in schools and libraries ever since. In 1912, she became editor of a children's book series called Our Wonder World, which began publishing in 1914 with 10 volumes nearly every year until 1932. In 1927, she started writing history books for young adults, including Great Moments in Science, Great Moments in Exploration, and Great Moments in Freedom.