"Margaret Sidney," as hostess reigns well, and exhibits one secret of her success in the writing of books...she puts aside her own personality and throws her whole heart into whatever interests those around her. It is impossible to forget this when talking to her, and the delightful atmosphere...was due largely to this influence.

Boston Evening Transcript, 1887

Harriett M. Stone was born on June 22, 1844 in New Haven, Connecticut. Although her life spanned more than half of the 19th century, we know little about her until the 1880s when her "Five Little Peppers and How They Grew" appeared in Wide Awake and she met and married the publisher of that magazine, Daniel Lothrop. Together they bought Hawthorne's home, The Wayside in Concord, MA. From that time on, her boundless energy and sunny disposition can be seen in all that she undertook - raising her daughter Margaret (born at The Wayside in 1884), writing for children (under the pen name Margaret Sidney), founding the National Society, Children of the American Revolution in 1895, saving historic houses and celebrating with grand fetes the rich heritage of The Wayside and the people who lived there. From 1881 to 1892 she and Daniel Lothrop worked together. After his death, Harriett pursued their goals alone.

Writing at The Wayside

Harriett Lothrop greatly admired Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing and she and Daniel bought The Wayside because it had been his home. Her own written works, however, were of a very different stamp. Her children's stories did not grow out of her actual childhood like Louisa May Alcott's or from the depths of her heart and soul as did Hawthorne's; they were products of her vivid imagination. Using the penname Margaret Sidney, she brought forth the popular adventures of "The Little Peppers", a family of five children prone to mischief to be sure, but most responsive to kindness and good deeds. Eleven "Pepper" books were written at The Wayside - the best known were The Five Little Peppers Midway and The Five Little Peppers Grown Up.

Today, at The Wayside, you can still see Harriett's favorite rocking chair, where she thought up many of her children's stories.
Harriett's love of Concord can be seen in two books and four houses. A Little Maid of Concord Town pays tribute to Concord's special role in the American Revolution, while Old Concord Her Hiways and Byways captures the town's charm at the end of the 19th century.
Harriett gave her heart to Concord not only in her written words, but by saving The Wayside, the Alcotts' Orchard House (next to the Wayside), the "Grapevine Cottage" (where the Concord grape was first produced), and the "Old Tolman House" on Monument Square. All these homes and the original grapevine still remain in Concord today thanks to Harriett's hard work.

For those people who visit The Wayside, Harriett's greatest legacy was the love of children, of history, of Concord and The Wayside that she instilled in her daughter, Margaret. Margaret Lothrop, a Concord native and last private owner of The Wayside, devoted forty years of her life to saving her home, opening it for tours and gathering every scrap of information she could about the house's history. In 1940, Margaret published her book that established The Wayside as the home of authors. The Wayside: Home of Authors - it still remains.