22 Facts About Clara Littledale

Clara Savage Littledale was an editor, writer, and reporter known for her work for Good Housekeeping Magazine and Parents Magazine.

Clara Littledale was born Clara Savage on January 31,1891 in Belfast, Maine.

Clara Littledale was the youngest of five children born to Arthur and Emma Savage, who were of Scottish and Irish ancestry.

Shortly after Clara was born, he moved the family to Medfield, Massachusetts, where he became a Unitarian minister.

Clara Littledale attended school in Medfield, Massachusetts, but graduated from high school in Plainfield, New Jersey, where the Savage family moved upon Arthur Savage's retirement.

Clara Littledale attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where her interest in journalism continued.

Shortly after graduating, Clara Littledale tried her hand at a career in teaching, but was encouraged by a school principal who insisted that she wanted to be a writer and facilitated her career change.

Clara Littledale was shortly hired by the New York Evening Post as their first ever woman reporter, and worked to report on suffrage conventions and parades.

Clara Littledale stayed at the New York Evening Post for only one year.

In 1914, Clara Littledale accepted the position of press chairman for the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

When World War I began, Clara Littledale was posted to France as a reporter for Good Housekeeping, where she reported on the war from a woman's perspective.

Clara Littledale returned to the United States in 1920, at which time she married her former coworker at the Evening Post Harold Aylmer Littledale, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who would eventually go on to become the editor of the New York Times.

Clara Littledale continued to write free-lance stories centered themes of marriage and family life, and they were published in journals such as Good Housekeeping, The New Republic, and McCall's.

Clara Littledale initially refused him to raise her daughter, Rosemary, but eventually agreed to the work if she could work in the office four days a week and spend three days at home with her children.

In 1929, the magazine changed its name to Parents Magazine, and Clara Littledale went on to hold the position of editor for thirty years until her death.

Clara Littledale's parenting philosophy was for parents and children to get along, and as such she advised parents not to be too serious and disciplinarian.

Clara Littledale supported parents using their own common sense, and encouraged them not to rely too heavily on the advice of experts, but she often included scientific research on childhood development in her writing.

Clara Littledale was relatively unscathed, but her husband Harold was permanently paralyzed.

In 1947, Clara Littledale was diagnosed with cancer, but she continued to work for Parents Magazine through a series of operations and chronic pain.

Clara Littledale participated in many events and engagements despite her diagnosis, including attending the White House Conference on Family Life in 1948, speaking at the Mental Hygiene Society Child Welfare Conference in 1949, taking a transcontinental tour in 1950, and traveling to Hawaii as a guest of the United States Navy in 1953.

Clara Littledale died in 1956 in New York City having never retired.

Clara Littledale's papers are held by Schlesinger Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts.