Abbie Farwell Brown was an American writer. Brown was born in Boston, Massachusetts, as the first of two daughters of Benjamin F. Brown, an Isaac Allerton descendent, and Clara Neal Brown, a contributor to The Youth's Companion. Her sister, Ethel, became an author and illustrator under the name Ann Underhill. Brown's family had lived in New England for ten generations, and she had spent her whole life in her Beacon Hill mansion. Brown was the Bowdoin School's valedictorian in 1886. She later attended the Girls' Latin School, where she became acquainted with Josephine Preston Peabody. She was the main force behind the newly founded school newspaper, The Jabberwock, which Brown called after Lewis Carroll's poem. While at Girls' Latin School, she contributed to St. Nicholas Magazine, some of which were illustrated by her sister. She began writing for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat under the pen name Jean Neal in 1898. She also created a one-act comedy, Quits (1896), set in a women's college. Saint Werburgh's miracles, including the resuscitation of a goose, from Chester Cathedral Her first children's book, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts (1900), was inspired by her first journey abroad, notably the carved choir stalls in Chester Cathedral that depict the life of Saint Werburgh. The book retells Christian stories about saints' contacts with animals. Brown would publish further collections retelling old tales for a modern child readership.
