Born on October 26, 1818, in Portland, Maine, Elizabeth Payson was the daughter of a well known minister and revivalist. She attended local schools and at nineteen opened a short-lived school of her own. In 1840╨1841 and 1842╨1843 she taught in a private girls╒ school in Richmond, Virginia. Ill health, which recurred throughout her life, made it difficult for her to establish herself. In April 1845 she married the Reverend George L. Prentiss, with whom she lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, for several years, briefly in Newark, New Jersey, and from 1851 mainly in New York City. From an early age she had had an interest in writing, and as early as 1834 she had published a piece in the Youth╒s Companion.
In the early 1850s Prentiss took up writing seriously, contributing stories and articles to Youth╒s Companion, the New York Observer, and other periodicals. Little Susy╒s Six Birthdays, 1853, a book for children, was a considerable success and was followed by Little Susy╒s Six Teachers, 1856, and Little Susy╒s Little Servants, 1856. The Flower of the Family, 1853, was her first novel, and Only a Dandelion, and Other Stories, 1854, collected some of her earlier work. Subsequent books included Henry and Bessie; or, What They Did in the Country, 1855, Peterchen and Gretchen, Tales of Early Childhood, translated from German, 1860, The Little Preacher, 1867, Fred, and Maria, and Me, 1867, The Old Brown Pitcher, 1868, Stepping Heavenward, her greatest success, selling 100,000 copies in America and more abroad in English and in translations, 1869, Nidworth, 1869, The Percys, 1870, The Story Lizzie Told, 1870, Six Little Princesses, 1871, Aunt Jane╒s Hero, 1871, Golden ours, religious verses and hymns, 1874, Urbane and His Friends, 1874, Griselda, translated from German, 1876, The Home at Greylock, 1876, Pemaquid, 1877, Gentleman Jim, 1878, and the posthumous Avis Benson, 1879. The evangelical piety of her books, many of which were thinly veiled autobiography, and their familiar reliance on scenes of everyday life found a ready audience. During 1858╨1860 she and her family lived in Europe, principally in Switzerland. She died on August 13, 1878, at their summer home in Dorset, Vermont.
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