Rose Terry Cooke (February 17, 1827 – July 18, 1892) was an American author and poet. Some of her earliest contributions were published in Putnam's Magazine; and the Atlantic Monthly, in which she wrote the leading story in the first number; then in the Galaxy, published in Philadelphia; and in Harper's. A very popular story by Cooke was "The Deacon's Week". Her short stories of New England life would fill several volumes. Cooke's dream was that of developing her powers of poetry. Her first verses were printed in the New York Tribune, using her mother's initials for a pseudonym. Early life and education Rose Terry was born in a farm house on February 17, 1827, in West Hartford, Connecticut. Her mother was Anne Wright Hurlbut, the daughter of John Hurlbut of Wethersfield, Connecticut, the first New England shipmaster who sailed round the world. He left his daughter an orphan when she was nine years old; and she grew up with a morbid conscience. She married Henry Wadsworth Terry, the son of Nathaniel Terry, president of a Hartford Bank, and for some time a United States representative from Connecticut. Henry Wadsworth Terry was a social favorite, sensitive, generous, and open-hearted. On his mother's side, he belonged to the old Wadsworth stock, from which the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow descended, his immediate ancestor in this country having been the Hon. William Wadsworth; and his uncle, several times removed, having been that Joseph Wadsworth who stole the Charter Oak, and who had a descendant, General Alfred Terry of Fort Fisher and Pulaski notability, the cousin of Rose. There was one younger sister. Her father educated her in outdoor studies, familiarizing her with birds, bees, and flowers. The mother taught Cooke to read before she was three years old, and at age six, she was studying Walker's Rhyming Dictionary, columns of which had to be learned with their definitions, and compositions written including the words learned. With such an exacting mother, Cooke kept a diary from the age of six to ten, which was preserved at least through adulthood. The dictionary process produced such sentences as: "To-day I imbued my fingers with the blood of cherries!" Cooke was a delicate child, owing to an early illness, which was so severe that for a time, it was thought she would die. It was possibly for that reason that she was encouraged to spend time outdoors.