Margaret Sangster

Margaret Elizabeth Sangster (pen name, Aunt Marjorie) was an American poet, author, and editor. Her poetry was inspired by family and church themes, and included hymns and sacred texts. She worked in several fields including book reviewing, story writing, and verse making. For a quarter of a century, Sangster was known by the public as a writer, beginning as a writer of verse, and combining later the practical work of a critic and journalist. Much of her writing did not include her name.

Her literary productions were numerous, and she was a regular contributor to many of the leading periodicals. She gradually drifted into editorial work, and in 1871, she became the editor of Hearth and Home. In 1873, she took an editorial position on the Christian at Work, which she held for six years. In 1879, she joined the staff of the Christian Intelligencer, and served as assistant editor until 1888. In 1882, she added to her work the editing of Harper's Young People, then starting. In 1890, she became the editor of Harper's Bazar. During these busy years, she also wrote poetry. Her miscellaneous work included stories, sketches, essays, editorial comment, criticisms, and other writing implied in the journalistic positions she held. Her published books are Manual of Missions of the Reformed Church in America (New York, 1878); Poems of the Household (Boston, 1883); Home Fairies and Heart Flowers (New York, 1887), and a series of Sunday school books.

She married George Sangster, of Williamsburgh, New York, in 1858, and accepted the care of a family of children, and was a successful stepmother. She had one child of her own, a son, George Sangster, a journalist, later becoming a grandmother to Margaret E. Sangster, a writer and magazine editor. She made her home in Brooklyn, where she was active in connection with church and Sunday-school work. She essentially gave up writing until after his death in 1871; she never remarried.