Lenore Elizabeth Mulets

March 1, 1877

Today is the birthday of the children’s author, volunteer, poet, and teacher, Lenore Elizabeth Mulets.

Born Nora Mulertz in Kansas, Lenore’s mother died when she was ten. Raised by her uncle’s family, Lenore left for Chicago’s Wheaton College to become a teacher. She found a position in Malden, Massachusetts, and then served as a YMCA canteen worker in Germany and France during WWI.

I pieced together Lenore’s life story by reading the letters she sent to her sister Mildred during her time in Europe. Mildred shared the notes with the local Wellington Kanas newspaper.

In addition to teaching, Lenore was a marvelous children’s author. Her books were always charming and uplifting. Her titles include Stories of Birds, Flower Stories, Insect Stories, Tree Stories, and Stories of Trees, to name a few.
In the preface to Flower Stories, Lenore wrote,

“When the flowers of the field and garden lift their bright faces to you, can you call them by name and greet them as old acquaintances? Or, having passed them a hundred times, are they still strangers to you?
In this little book of "Flower Stories," only our very familiar friends have been planted. About them have been woven our favorite poems, songs, and stories.”

Regarding the seeds, Lenore wrote,

A wonderful thing is a seed; 
The one thing deathless forever; 
Forever old and forever new; 
Utterly faithful and utterly true – 
Fickle and faithless never. 
Plant lilies and lilies will bloom;
Plant roses and roses will grow;
Plant hate and hate to life will spring;
Plant love and love to you will bring
The fruit of the seed you sow.

And long before Twitter, in her book Stories of Birds, Lenore wrote:

Such a twittering and fluttering there was when this news came.