Woman of the Century/Anna Laurens Dawes

DAWES, Miss Anna Laurens, author, born in North Adams, Mass., i.,th May, 1851. She is the ANNA LAURENS DAWES. daughter of Hon. Henry L. Dawes, United States Senator from Massachusetts. She is of New England ancestry on both sides, her father having been born in Cummington, Mass., and her mother, Electa Sanderson, in Ashfield, in the same State. She was educated in Maplewood Institute, Pittstield, Mass , and in Abbott Academy. Andover, Mass. From her early years she has had the exceptional advantage of a life in Washington, her father's tenn of continuous service in Congress being almost unprecedented. She has known personally most of the noted men who have figured conspicuously in public life. Such a large experience, combined with a spirit of active inquiry, has caused her to be interested in a variety of enterprises and subjects of political and philanthropic character and to use her pen in their behalf. Her literary life had at the beginning a decided journalistic character. At intervals during the years from 1871 to 1881 she was the Washington correspondent of the "Congregationalist." the Springfield "Republican, "the "Christian Union." and had charge of a department of the "Berkshire Gazette," of Pittsfield, Mass., in 1883. She has written book reviews for those papers as well as for the "American Hebrew" and the "Sunday School Times." Since 1874 she has contributed articles to the "Christian Union," the "Congregationalist," the "Independent" and the "Critic," and numerous articles to "Good House-keeping." the "Andover Review," "America," " Lend a Hand," "Wide Awake." " Home Magazine," "Harper's Magazine, " the " Century" and others. An article in " Wide Awake," "The Ham- mer of the Gentiles," was republished in the series of the Magna Charta stories. One on A United States Prison, had the honor of being twice read in Congress, and afterwards published in the "Congressional Record." An article on George Kennan in the "Century" has been translated into several languages. She has published a small volume, "The Modern Jew" (New York, 18H4 and Boston, 1886). " How we are Governed" (Boston, 18851. and a " Biography of Charles Sumner, (New York, 1892). Miss Dawes is a trustee of Smith College, one of the Board of Managers for the World's Pair for the State of Massachusetts, and president of the Wednesday Morning Club, Pittsfield. Mass.. since its organization, in 1880. She is a vice-president of the National McAll Association, a manager of " Home Work." a charity organization in Pittsfield, and holds various offices in connection with the American Missionary Association, the work for Indians, and the National Conference of Charities and Correction. She is interested in and connected with several missionary and charitable societies, a member of a Working-Girl's Club, the Prison and Social Science Association and several alumna- associations and literary societies.