Patricia Clapp (1912-2003) was a beloved author of fiction for children. As a young woman, she attended the Columbia University School of Journalism. After she married and became a mother, she began writing plays for children, eventually publishing more than twenty (as well as a few for adults). When Clapp learned in the course of genealogy research that one of her forbears was Constance Hopkins, who had been a passenger on the Mayflower at age fourteen, she was inspired to write the novel Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth (1968), which was nominated for the National Book Award. Clapp went on to write the ghost story Jane-Emily (1969), as well as the historical novels Dr. Elizabeth: The Story of the First Woman Doctor (1974), I'm Deborah Sampson: A Soldier in the War of the Revolution (1977), Witches' Children: A Story of Salem (1982), and The Tamarack Tree: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg (1986). Because of their enduring appeals, a number of Clapp's novels are still available to purchase.