WIGGIN, KATE DOUGLAS 1_5_ ( g 6 ,-1923), American novelist, daughter of Robert N. Smith, a lawyer, was born in Philadelphia (Pa.), Sept. 28, 1856, whence her family removed to Hollis (Maine). She was educated at home and at various seminaries including Abbot academy, Andover (Mass.), and when 17 years of age joined her family in California. Having been a member of Miss Marwedel's pioneer training class, she was called from her teaching in Santa Barbara to establish in San Francisco the first free kindergarten on the western coast (1878), and or ganized her own California kindergarten training school in 1880. She married, in 1881, Samuel B. Wiggin, who died in 1889. In 1895 she married George C. Riggs, but continued to write under the name of Wiggin. She died in England, Aug 24, 1923. Her
interest in children's education was shown in numerous books, but her literary reputation rests rather on her prose fiction : The Birds' Christmas Carol (1888), the Penelope series (5 vols.) ; Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903) ; New Chronicles of Rebecca (1907); and The Story of Waitstill Baxter (1913). Several of these were dramatized with the assistance of collaborators. An autobiographical volume is My Garden of Memory (1923).
A uniform "Quillcote" edition of her books appeared in ten vols. Several of them have been translated into many languages. See also Nora Archibald Smith, Kate Douglas Wiggin as Her Sister Knew Her (1925).