H. A. Guerber
Between 1893 and 2017, publishers issued 104 editions of The Myths of Greece and Rome, in both English and French. WorldCat lists them in 1,194 libraries around the world. The author, Hélène Adeline Guerber, signed her books H. A. Guerber. She was an American teacher and writer who published over two dozen books. Her subjects ran from myths and folklore to plays, epic poetry, operas and history.
Ask who she was, though, and the trail goes cold. Her books stayed in print while the facts of her life slipped away. Where was she born, what did she study, and who shared her home? And what did she quietly remove from the ancient stories she retold? This documentary pieces the answers together from census forms, old reference entries and a short funeral notice.
Three or four biographical reference books from the early 1900s carry entries on Guerber. Apart from listing the titles she wrote, they offer almost no facts about her. Two short death notices add a little more. Six census records add a little more still: five federal ones and the New York state census of 1892.
Even this scant material sometimes disagrees with itself. A prolific author is left almost entirely forgotten as a person, and every claim about her has to be checked against a different scrap of paper. The 1900 census proves the most useful of them, because it records how many children her parents raised.
According to the Publishers Weekly notice of 1929, Hélène Guerber was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan, on the 9th of March 1859. Census records name her father as Arnold S. Guerber, born in 1830 in Italy to Swiss parents. Her mother, Emma, was also born in 1830 and had Swiss nationality. Arnold reached America in 1845 and Emma in 1853. The 1900 census says the couple had been married for 47 years, which suggests a wedding in 1853, the year Emma arrived.
Arnold changed trades more than once. In 1870 he was an importer of straw goods, and in 1880 he was a farmer. In 1892 and 1900, when he was 70, he worked as a real estate broker. The family seems to have been comfortable. In 1870 Arnold owned real estate valued at $14,000 and personal property valued at $3,000, and the censuses of 1870-1900 and 1910 all record a domestic servant.
From 1870 to 1910, the family lived in Rockland County, New York. In 1870 they were in the town of Ramapo, and in 1880 they were in the unincorporated village of Monsey. In 1892-1900 and 1910 they lived in Orangetown. Some sources place Guerber in Nyack, but Nyack is a village inside Orangetown.
The 1900 census lists five children, three sons and two daughters, and Hélène was the third. Frederick was born in 1854, Louis in 1857, Paul in 1861 and Adele in 1866. Only Hélène was born in Michigan. The other four were all born in New York.
The Publishers Weekly notice of 1929 says, "While Miss Guerber had very little early education, her interests led her to deal with academic classics." That sentence sits awkwardly beside the 1914-15 edition of Woman's Who's Who of America. It states that she was educated in Paris, France. The same entry lists her religion as Episcopalian.
A Paris education seems plausible, since her writing shows a deep familiarity with Europe. She must have spent a good deal of time there to research a detailed guidebook. She also seems to have been at ease in French and German, because she wrote student readers in both languages.
The guidebook was Dodd Mead's 1906 volume How to Prepare for Europe: A Handbook of Historical, Literary and Artistic Data with Full Directions for Preliminary Studies and Travel Arrangements. It shows wide knowledge of European culture and travel.
For the American Book Company, Guerber wrote eight books in the Eclectic School Readings Series, which came to be called Guerber's Historical Readers. One advertisement says they were aimed at students aged 12-14. Her teaching was probably at the level before high school, which fits the audience she wrote for.
In her Preface to The Story of the Greeks, she drew on her classroom experience. She wrote: "I have found historical anecdotes an excellent aid in teaching English. Pupils find it far from irksome to relate the stories in their own words, and to reproduce them in compositions. Secondly, whenever a city or country is mentioned, every pupil should point out its location on the map. By such means only can any one properly understand an historical narrative; and in the present case there is the added reason that the practice will go far towards increasing the child's interest in geography."
The series was not limited to Greece. The Story of the Romans appeared in New York in 1896, and other volumes covered the Chosen People, England, France and the Thirteen Colonies.
Dover Publications describes its edition of The Myths of Greece and Rome this way: "This generously illustrated book of classical myths has become a classic itself, long prized for its simple, graphic, accurate retelling of the principal myths of Greece and Rome, and for its commentary on their origins and significance." The London publisher George G. Harrap issued the book in 1908.
Three more titles for adult readers also endure. Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas appeared in 1909. Legends of the Rhine came out in New York in 1895, with a new edition in 1905. Legends of the Middle Ages followed from Harrap in 1909.
Her lesser-known work includes retellings of Shakespeare's plays, of Wagner's operas and of other popular operas. Stories of the Wagner Opera appeared in 1895. The Book of the Epic, from Lippincott in Philadelphia, arrived in 1913 and turned to the great epic poems. Her list also holds Legends of the Virgin and Christ from 1896 and Empresses of France from 1901.
One of those books, The Myths of Greece and Rome, was shaped as much by what she cut as by what she kept.
While writing The Myths of Greece and Rome, Guerber made deliberate efforts to remove themes of homosexuality. She rewrote some stories so that the relationships became heterosexual. She took out the homosexual elements of others. She left out entirely some myths that center on characters in homosexual relationships.
Dover's description of the book as accurate does not mention these changes. Readers who met the Greek and Roman myths through her pages met a version edited by her own judgment.
The fullest portrait of her last years comes from a single notice printed in the Montclair New Jersey Times.
Guerber never married. She kept her maiden name all her life and lived with her parents and siblings. By the 1920 census her parents had died, and she had moved to Montclair, New Jersey. Her sister Adele and her niece Louise lived with her. The Publishers Weekly notice says she had lived in Montclair for sixteen years at her death, which points to a move around 1913-14.
She died on the 26th of May 1929. The Montclair New Jersey Times printed this death notice: "DIED GUERBER, HELENE A. At her residence, 31 Oakwood Ave., Upper Montclair, N.J., on Sunday, the 26th of May 1929. Funeral services at St. James' Church, corner of Dellevue Ave. and Valley Rd., Upper Montclair, yesterday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock. Interment at Greenwood Cemetery."
Her parents, Arnold and Emma, and her brother Louis are also buried in Greenwood Cemetery in New York.
Updated
Common questions
Who was H. A. Guerber?
H. A. Guerber was Hélène Adeline Guerber, an American writer and teacher who retold myths, legends, folklore, plays, epic poetry, operas and history. She published over two dozen books in her lifetime.
When and where was H. A. Guerber born?
H. A. Guerber was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan, on the 9th of March 1859, according to her 1929 death announcement in Publishers Weekly. Her parents were Arnold S. Guerber and Emma Guerber.
What is H. A. Guerber best known for?
H. A. Guerber is best known for The Myths of Greece and Rome, which appeared in 104 editions between 1893 and 2017. Her Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas, Legends of the Rhine and Legends of the Middle Ages are also enduring classics.
Did H. A. Guerber write books for schools?
Yes, H. A. Guerber wrote eight books in the Eclectic School Readings Series for the American Book Company. They were known as Guerber's Historical Readers, and one advertisement aimed them at students aged 12-14.
Where did H. A. Guerber live and where did she die?
H. A. Guerber lived in Rockland County, New York, from 1870 to 1910 and later moved to Montclair, New Jersey. She died on the 26th of May 1929 at her residence at 31 Oakwood Ave., Upper Montclair, and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery.
How did H. A. Guerber change the myths in The Myths of Greece and Rome?
H. A. Guerber made deliberate efforts to remove themes of homosexuality from The Myths of Greece and Rome. She rewrote some stories as heterosexual and excluded some myths that center on characters in homosexual relationships.
All sources
17 references cited across the entry
- 1Myths of the Norsemen, re-published 1992 by Dover Publications.
- 2BookA Dictionary of American AuthorsOscar Fay Adams — Houghton, Mifflin and Co. — 1904
- 3BookWho's Who in New York City and StateL.R. Hamersly Co. — 1904
- 4BookWoman's Who's Who of America, 1914-1915John William Leonard — The American Commonwealth Co. — 1914
- 5JournalHelene Guerber
- 6Guerber's HistoriesNothing New Press
- 7BookThe Story of the GreeksH.A. Guerber — American Book Company — 1896
- 9BookThe Myths of Greece and RomeDover
- 10Copy in the collection of the Ludington Branch, Mason County District Library, Ludington, Michigan.
- 11BookEmpresses of FranceH. A Guerber — Dodd, Mead and Co. — 1901
- 12BookLegends of the Virgin and Christ, with special reference to literature and artH. A Guerber — Dodd, Mead — 1896
- 13BookStories of the Wagner operas.H. A Guerber — Dodd, Mead and Company — 1895
- 14BookMärchen und erzählungen.H. A Guerber — D.C. Heath & Co. — 1900
- 15BookThe book of the epic the world's great epics told in storyH. A Guerber — J.B. Lippincott Co. — 1913
- 16BookThe story of the RomansH. A Guerber — American Book Co. — 1896
- 17BookMyths & legends of the middle ages.H. A Guerber — George G. Harrap & Company — 1909