The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, From the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement

Born in Cape Cod in 1859, Katharine Lee Bates, whom McMahon refers to as “Katie,” began writing poetry from a young age. Katharine was the youngest of four children. Her father passed away when she was just four weeks old, and her mother struggled to care for Katharine and her siblings. While her mother and elder siblings worked tirelessly to keep the family out of poverty, Katharine was permitted to spend her days playing with her friends and writing in her notebook.

As a young woman, Katharine looked stern and intimidating, but she was known for her kind and inquisitive personality. She was prone to pondering life’s big questions and loved to study. She was particularly frustrated with gender roles that required women to stay indoors and sew while boys played outside and went to school. As a young woman, Katharine was eager to attend college. In the mid-1800s, higher education opportunities for women were limited, but a network of elite women’s colleges called the Seven Sisters was starting to develop. Katharine was admitted to Wellesley, a women’s college with an academic rigor that matched Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Yale.

In college, Katharine began publishing her writing in a number of periodicals.