Margaret Colby Getchell Parsons
Margaret Colby Getchell Parsons | |
|---|---|
The author at aged 16 or 17 in 1908. | |
| Born | August 25, 1891 Worcester, Massachusetts, US |
| Died | January 13, 1970 (aged 78) Southborough, Massachusetts, US |
| Pen name | Professional use of some combination of first, middle and surnames. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Education | Wheaton College (Massachusetts), Radcliffe College |
| Genre | Journalist, critic, children's book writer and children's playwright |
| Spouse | Eugene Olian Parsons |
| Relatives | Daughter of artist Edith Loring Getchell |
Margaret Colby Getchell Parsons (1891–1970) was an American journalist in the 1920s. Although a features writer, rather than an investigative reporter, she matched her investigative peers in originality and, like them, also wrote on under-reported "women's issues." In long-form articles like "What is Least on which a Working Woman Can Live?" she focused on practical issues, such as women's poverty-level wages. But there were also numerous profiles of brave female role models, including Clara Barton, Joan of Arc and Marie, Romania's last queen, who "fled the fairy tale" to minister to wounded soldiers during World War I.
In a prolific career, Getchell also wrote for children, and her books, plays and "playlets" stand out for their emphasis on the independence and imagination of her audience, and her dismay that more dramatists weren't adapting plays with children in mind. She argued that children were "natural playwrights," and that making them think would reduce the need for family discipline.
In 1929, Getchell, by then known as Parsons, became a full-time writer and book critic for the Worcester-based Sunday Telegram and Evening Gazette where she remained until 1960.