from:  Chamber's Encyclopaedia, 1892

Hale, SARAH JOSEPHA, author of Mary's Lamb (what we call "Mary had a Little Lamb"), was born at Newport, New Hampshire, October 24, 1788.

On the death of her husband, David Hale, in 1822, she devoted herself to authorship, and became in 1828 editor of the Indies' Magazine, which she continued to conduct after it had, in 1837, become united with Godey's Lady's Book; nor did she retire from her editorial work until 1877.

She was instrumental in procuring the employment of lady medical missionaries, in completing the Bunker Hill monument, and in securing that Thanksgiving Day (see the letter she penned President Lincoln and her words in Godey's Lady's Book at the Library of Congress) should be simultaneously observed in all the states. She published nearly twenty works, including poems, cookery books, books of poetical extracts, and novels. Her most important work is Woman's Record : or Sketches of all Distinguished Women (3d ed. 1869). She died 30th April 1879.