Louise Lamprey collection, 1934-1935

Full finding aid (pdf)

Collection Scope and Content

The collection consists of biographical newspaper articles, and a typescript of four stories by Lamprey.

Biographical/Historical Note

Lunette Emeline Lamprey (penname Louise Lamprey) was born in 1869 in Alexandria, New Hampshire. Her father was a minister. She graduated in 1891 from Mount Holyoke College as a member of its first graduating class. Lamprey went on to become one of the first woman editors of a Washington, D.C. newspaper, The Capitol. She also lectured at a series of New England summer camps, including Laughing Loon Camp in East Waterboro, Maine and Limerick Campfire Girls. These experiences led Lamprey towards writing children’s books, specifically historical fiction, including In the Days of the Guild, Masters of the Guild, The Treasure Valley and The Tomahawk Trail. Lamprey also wrote about architecture, including her book, All the Ways of Building (1933). Although she traveled extensively, she spent the majority of her life in Limerick, Maine as a local celebrity, the alliterative “Louise Lamprey of Limerick”. She died in 1951.

When once asked about her writing and characters, Lamprey said, “People walk into my stories and sometime prove to be better than those I had planned. In a way…my books write themselves. When I sit down at my typewriter, I never know what is to come. Endings sometimes astonish me. Nor do I believe that authors who put their acquaintances into novels are as successful, as a rule, as those who make their characters up.”