{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"160: Lydia Maria Child: "Over the River and Through the Web"","description":"Lydia Maria Child: \u201cOver the River and Through the Wood\u201d In the 19th century, Lydia Maria Child\u2019s name was nearly a household word. An outspoken abolitionist, women\u2019s rights supporter, and crusader for Native American rights, Child was also a prolific author. A journalist and editor, she wrote novels and short stories (often using fiction to express her anti-slavery views), poems and children\u2019s books, and domestic manuals for wives and mothers. Her most famous book \u2013 which went into 33 printings \u2013 was The Frugal Housewife, first published in 1829. Four years later, she published An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans, believed to be the first anti-slavery book published in the United States. She also served as editor for Harriet Jacobs\u2019s influential 1861 slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. In all, Child wrote more than 50 books. Though Child was very prominent in her time, she comes down to us now primarily as the author of a poem originally published as \u201cThe New-England Boy\u2019s Song about Thanksgiving Day\u201d \u2013 more popularly known to us as \u201cOver the River and Through the Wood.\u201d It was included in her 1844 book, Flowers for Children. The poem features Child\u2019s reminiscences about visiting her grandfather\u2019s house during the cold New England winters. The Poetry Foundation, which credits her with being one of the most important American women writers of the 19th century, provides an outstanding overview of Child\u2019s life and work, writing: \u201cShe wrote one of the earliest American historical novels, the first comprehensive history of American slavery, and the first comparative history of women. In addition, she edited the first American children's magazine, compiled an early primer for the freed slaves, and published the first book designed for the elderly.\u201d  Two other excellent introductions to Child can be found at American National Biography Online and the History of American Women website. You can visit Transcendentalists.com to consider Child\u2019s relationship to other New England thinkers and writers of the time. Her work is also included in the Library of Congress\u2019s \u201cAmerican Women\u201d project. Look for her especially in the section titled \u201cReform Efforts.\u201d If you want to go even further in your exploration of this key 19th-century writer, you might want to read Lori Kenschaft\u2019s book Lydia Maria Child: The Quest for Racial Justice or Carolyn L. Karcher\u2019s book The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child. A Lydia Maria Child Reader is available. And believe it or not, you can still buy a copy of The American Frugal Housewife. Not surprisingly, many children\u2019s picture books have taken \u201cOver the River and Through the Wood\u201d as their subject. I am particularly taken with Mary Engelbreit\u2019s version. Another lovely book is Over the River and Through the Wood: An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century American Children\u2019s Poetry. Wherever Thanksgiving Day finds you this year, take a moment to revisit Lydia Maria Child\u2019s classic poem celebrating the holiday. Visit thestoryweb.com\/child for links to all these resources. Listen now as I read Lydia Maria Child\u2019s 1844 poem \u201cThe New-England Boy\u2019s Song about Thanksgiving Day.\u201d The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day BY LYDIA MARIA CHILD   Over the river, and through the wood,     To grandfather's house we go;         The horse knows the way,         To carry the sleigh,     Through the white and drifted snow.   Over the river, and through the wood,     To grandfather's house away!         We would not stop         For doll or top,     For 't is Thanksgiving day.   Over the river, and through the wood,     Oh, how the wind does blow!         It stings the toes,         And bites the nose,     As over the ground we go.   Over the river, and through the wood,     With a clear blue winter sky,         The dogs do bark,         And children hark,     As we go jingling by.   Over the river, and through the wood,     To have a first-rate play \u2014         Hear the bells ring         Ting a ling ding,     Hurra for Thanksgiving day!   Over the river, and through the wood \u2014     No matter for winds that blow;         Or if we get         The sleigh upset,     Into a bank of snow.   Over the river, and through the wood,     To see little John and Ann;         We will kiss them all,         And play snow-ball,     And stay as long as we can.   Over the river, and through the wood,     Trot fast, my dapple grey!         Spring over the ground,         Like a hunting hound,     For 't is Thanksgiving day!   Over the river, and through the wood,     And straight through the barn-yard gate;         We seem to go         Extremely slow,     It is so hard to wait.   Over the river, and through the wood,     Old Jowler hears our bells;         He shakes his pow,         With a loud bow wow,     And thus the news he tells.   Over the river, and through the wood \u2014     When grandmother sees us come,         She will say, Oh dear,         The children are here,     Bring a pie for every one.   Over the river, and through the wood \u2014     Now grandmother's cap I spy!         Hurra for the fun!         Is the pudding done?     Hurra for the pumpkin pie!   ","author_name":"StoryWeb: Storytime for Grownups","author_url":"http:\/\/storyweb.libsyn.com\/webpage","html":"