"Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins"[August 13,1930

Pauline was born in Portland Maine.She was born to free parents of color who raised her in Maine for a short period of time before moving to Boston,Massachusetts.

Her daddy,Northrop Hopkins,a Civil War veteran and member of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR),was born in Alexandria,Virginia.Her mama,Sarah Allen Hopkins
was a native of Greater Boston Area.Pauline later adopted her mama's maiden name
as a pen-name for many published works.
While in Boston,she attended Girls High School,which was a leading  secondary
institution in the region and whose graduates entered prestigious colleges and universities across the nation.While at Girls High School,Pauline,then 15, entered into an essay completion for African American students that was hosted by William Wells Brown.At the time,William  was considered the nation's premier  African American novelist.Pauline won the completion and the ten dollar prize for her essay,"Evils Intemperance and their remedies.
At the age of 16 she began her career as a stage performer debuting with the Progressive Musical Union,a Boston choral
group.Two years later,in 1877,Pauline was selected to be the lead actress in the stage production of Pauline or The Belle Saratoga.By 1879 Pauline and her family created the Hopkins Colored Troubadours,a musical troupe that accompanied her on
national tours where she starred in musical dramas including ones she wrote.Her first original play,Slaves`Escape or The Underground Railroad (which later became Peculiar Sam),opened in Boston in 1880.She was 21 at the time.In 1895 ,Pauline took a position at the Bureau of Statistics for the Massachusetts Decennial Census.Writing remain her passion,and in 1900 she authored her first short piece of published fiction,"The Mystery Within Us,"which appeared in Colored American Magazine.By 1902,she had become editor of Colored American,and it was during this period that she also authored three novels: Hagar's Daughter: A story of Southern Caste Prejudice(1901); Winona:A tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest (1902); and Of One Blood,or,the Hidden Self (1903).In 1915,Pauline became the first African American editor of New Era magazine,one of the leading journals of the period.The New Era folded,in 1918 and she ended her brief but brilliant literary career.That year became stenographer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,a post Pauline held for the rest of her life.She died from burns received from a fire at her residence.