Patricia Clapp

Patricia Clapp (June 9, 1912 – December 10, 2003) was an American writer of fiction for children and young adults. Her first novel, ''Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth'' (1968) is based on the life of her forebear Constance Hopkins - a passenger on the ''Mayflower''. It was nominated for the National Book Award in 1969. Her second book, ''Jane-Emily'' (1969) was described by Sarah Lyall in ''The New York Times'' nearly 50 years after its publication as "one of the great children’s ghost stories, featuring a nasty little dead girl who is not at all pleased when a good little living girl comes to stay in her old house."

Most of Clapp's novels were written as fictionalized accounts of historical events. ''Dr. Elizabeth: The Story of the First Woman Doctor'' (1974) focuses on the life of Elizabeth Blackwell who was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. ''I'm Deborah Sampson: A Soldier in the War of the Revolution'' is loosely based on the life of Deborah Sampson, a young woman who disguised herself as a man and served in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment during the Revolutionary War. ''Witches' Children: A Story of Salem'' (1982) and ''The Tamarack Tree: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg'' (1986) explore the history of the Salem witch trials and the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War, respectively. Provided by Wikipedia