Harriet Stark (1868-1944) was born in Payson, Utah Territory, in the United States of America on September 23, 1868, daughter of Daniel Stark and Anna Piscilla Beckenhead. Her father was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and her mother was born in Birmingham, England. At some point between her birth and 1870, her family moved to St. Joseph, Rio Virgin County, Utah Territory (somewhere near Amber, Nevada today).
She married Lewis William Barry Wride on May 18, 1897 in Logan, Utah, and by the time of the 1900 release of The Bacillus of Beauty, she, her husband, and four daughters were living in Payson on a farm. Eventually, they had eleven children, though two died within a year of being born. They didn’t have running water on their farm, so she had to pump water from the well by hand, and carry it to the house multiple times daily. Harriet made clothing by hand for herself and her children, and she could recreate clothing patterns simply by looking at a picture and then reproducing it on newspaper in the size she needed.
Her husband died on March 7, 1934 in Payson at age 71 after an accidental fall. Harriet lived a decade longer before succumbing to pneumonia—brought on by ten years of pulmonary tuberculosis—on August 23, 1944 in Payson. She was 75 years old.
Her only known speculative fiction work was The Bacillus of Beauty, published in 1900 by Frederick A. Stokes Company in New York City.
Hemelein Publications works:
- The Bacillus of Beauty, published as part of the Legacy of the Corridor publication series.
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