The Open Window

Mabel Osgood Wright (1859-1934) was an American author and early leader of the Audubon movement who wrote extensively about nature and birds. She was born in New York City and educated at home and at private schools. In 1884 she married Englishman James Osborne Wright and after an extended visit to England the couple settled in Fairfield, Conn. Wright's first printed work was an essay entitled A New England May Day which appeared in the New York Evening Post in 1893 and which was later collected with other pieces into her first book, The Friendship of Nature (1894). The following year saw the publication of Birdcraft: A Field Book of 200 Song, Game and Water Birds which was a prototype of the modern field guide to birds for a popular audience. From its inception in 1899 Wright contributed to Chapman's Bird-Lore, co-editing its Audubon department, and serving as contributing editor until her death. In addition to her membership of various ornithological societies, she established the Birdcraft Sanctuary in 1914, the oldest private songbird refuge in the US. Her writing on nature was well-recieved from the offset but when she branched out into fiction she initially used the pseudonym Barbara until her work in this area won independent recognition. This collection of Tales of the Months was first published in 1908. Includes a facsimile of the original cover and a frontispiece.