Baker, Nina Brown (1888–1957)

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Baker, Nina Brown (1888–1957)

American author of biographies for children. Born Nina Brown on December 31, 1888, in Galena, Kansas; died on September 1, 1957, in Brooklyn Heights, New York; daughter of Frank and Belle (Warren) Brown; educated at University of Colorado (teaching certificate, 1911); married Sidney J. Baker, in 1915; children: Berenice and Nina.

Though her teaching career was brief, Nina Brown Baker's interest in educating children never faltered. Focusing on historical figures and world leaders, she wrote a set of biographies for children which were praised above her fiction.

Born on New Year's Eve in 1888, Baker was raised and schooled in Galena, Kansas, and lived with her parents until she entered the University of Colorado at age 20. College was a burden for her; she stayed only long enough to earn her teacher's certificate in 1911. Employed in Galena for one year, Baker then traveled to Alison, Colorado, to run a rural school. Anticipating adventure, she was overwhelmed to find the school on the town's only street, with just two other buildings—a general store and a blacksmith shop. The young teacher boarded in a guest house, where she had to chop her own wood and do other routine and unfamiliar chores. On the first day of classes, she was helped onto a horse and had to ride six miles to school. She had to walk home, however, leading the horse. No one had taught her how to remount.

Finding Colorado too rugged, Baker returned to Kansas City to attend business school. There, she took office jobs, explored city life, and met businessman Sydney J. Baker, whom she married in 1915. Over the years, the couple had two daughters and lived in Omaha, St. Louis, and Chicago, before moving to Brooklyn Heights in 1938.

Writing had always been of interest to Baker. At age 19, when a short story had been accepted by Good Housekeeping for $25 and the magazine encouraged further submissions, a career seemed promising. But Baker was cowed by the rejection of her second story and stopped writing. No longer working after her marriage, she resumed her writing and produced several successful pieces, which led to the 1931 mystery for girls The Secret of Hallam House. Over the next decade, inspired by her own young daughters, Baker produced six more such books before turning, in 1940, to biographies for young people. For six months, she researched the life of South American militarist and president Simón Bolívar; then in quick, tight drafts, she produced He Wouldn't Be King (1941) and earned her greatest praise yet. At last finding a niche, she produced more than a dozen similar works on famous men such as Benito Juarez, Peter the Great, Sun Yat-Sen, Christopher Columbus, and Amerigo Vespucci. By the time Baker died at her Brooklyn Heights home on September 1, 1957, she had written more than 25 books and, though out of the classroom, had been a force in the education of the young.