Sherwood Bonner

[4][5] According to Bonner's scrapbook, her first story, "Laura Capello: A Leaf from A Traveller’s Note Book", was published in the Boston Ploughman when she was 15 years old.

[2][4][7] McDowell, however, was unable to support his wife financially, and Bonner moved back to Holly Springs with her daughter.

[4][8] In September of 1873, Bonner left her daughter in her mother-in-law's care and took a train to Boston, calling upon her acquaintance Nahum Capen to help her enroll in a local school.

[11] Under Capen and Longfellow's sponsorship, Bonner began publishing stories in Harper’s Young People, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Youth’s Companion.

[4] In 1876, Bonner toured England and Europe with novelist Louise Chandler Moulton and wrote travel articles published in the Boston Times and the Memphis Avalanche.