MARGUERITTE HARMON BRO
If nothing else, Margueritte Harmon Bro proved she had staying power. One of the first students to attend Omaha University in the 1910s, Bro became a pioneering and prolific female journalist in the first half of the 20th century and one of that era’s better known authors. Her wide-ranging output included articles for national magazines, plays, biographies and novels. Some of it touched on religion, like books “Every Day a Prayer” and “Why Church.” She also wrote about Asia. Bro spent some of her childhood in China as the daughter of a missionary (she spoke fluent Chinese) and in Jakarta, where her husband was cultural attaché to the U.S. Embassy. Those experiences prompted her 1954 book, “Indonesia: Land of Challenge.” Her biography subjects included Myrtle Walgreen, wife of the Walgreen’s founder. Bro was perhaps best known, however, as one of the country’s foremost young adult authors, most notably for “Sarah,” a coming of age story set around World War I. Originally published in 1949, it was republished in 2001, its impact still felt more than a half century after it was penned. Wrote one reviewer: “If you think there has been a dumbing down in contemporary young adult literature, the reissue of the 1949 American classic ‘Sarah’ by Margueritte Harmon Bro will confirm your convictions.”