Authors and Books
for Children

Social Consciousness and Series Books: Josephine Lawrence Etexts

A New Jersey newspaper reporter and a writer of numerous novels for adult readers, Josephine Lawrence also wrote dozens of books for girls and very young children, both under her own name and under a variety of Stratemeyer Syndicate pseudonyms.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 12, 1889, Josephine Lawrence began working at the Newark Sunday Call in 1915, and eventually she became the newspaper's children's page editor; later she was the women's page editor and a weekly columnist for the Newark Sunday News.


An interview with Edward Stratemeyer led to her association with the Stratemeyer Syndicate, for which she wrote extensively through the 1920s. Among the Stratemeyer series to which she contributed were Betty Gordon (as Alice B. Emerson), Honey Bunch (as Helen Louise Thorndyke), and Four Little Blossoms (as Mabel C. Hawley).

Lawrence also created several children's series under her own name. Among these were the Linda Lane series for older girls, about an orphan girl; the Elizabeth Ann books, for younger girls, which focus on a seven-year-old child who goes to live with a succession of relatives while her parents are away in Japan; several so-called tots series, including the Brother and Sister series and the Kiddie Wonder series; and the Josephine Lawrence Stories for Girls, a loosely based series that did not feature continuing characters.

In 1932, during the Great Depression, Lawrence published her first novel for adults, Head of the Family, which focused on contemporary social issues and problems. She continued to address such concerns over the years in her fiction writing. Her 1934 novel Years Are So Long was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and was filmed in 1937 as Make Way for Tomorrow, starring Beulah Bondi and directed by Leo McCarey.

Josephine Lawrence died on February 22, 1978, in New York City.

Betty Gordon (as Alice B. Emerson)
#1 Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm, or The Mystery of a Nobody, 1920
#2 Betty Gordon in Washington, or Strange Adventures in a Great City, 1920
#4 Betty Gordon at Boarding School, or The Treasure of Indian Chasm, 1921

Brother and Sister
#1 Brother and Sister, 1921

Elizabeth Ann
#1 Adventures of Elizabeth Ann (chapters 1-7), 1923

Four Little Blossoms (as Mabel C. Hawley)
#4 Four Little Blossoms on Apple Tree Island, 1921

Kiddie Wonder
#5 Kiddies Frolics: Julia's Happy Visits, 1926

Sunny Boy (as Ramy Allison White)
#1 Sunny Boy in the Country, 1920

Toyland
Mr. White Helps Santa Claus, 1928