Lucy Larcom

Lucy Larcom (1824–1893) was an American poet, educator, and author closely associated with New England. Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, she moved with her family to Lowell and, as a girl, worked in the city’s textile mills, an experience that later informed her writing and public identity among the “Lowell mill girls.” Larcom became known for poems published in magazines and for her interest in moral and religious themes. She also built a long career in education, teaching in Illinois and later in Massachusetts. Her best-known prose work, *A New England Girlhood* (1889), recounts her early life and mill experience.