Stephens, Ann S: Phemie Frost's Experiences. v1. 18 Nov 2013
 

Ann Sophia Stephens (1810–1886) was an American novelist and magazine editor. She was the author of dime novels and is credited as the progenitor of that genre. Ann Sophia Stephens was born on March 30, 1810 in Derby, Connecticut, She was the daughter of Ann and John Winterbotham, brother of William Winterbotham. He was the manager of a woolen mill owned by Col. David Humphreys. Her mother died early and she was brought up by her mother's sister, who eventually became her stepmother. She was educated at a dame school in South Britain, Connecticut and started writing at an early age. She married Edward Stephens, a printer from Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1831 and they relocated to Portland, Maine. The actress Clara Bloodgood was the daughter of their son, Edward Stephens, a well known New York lawyer.

Excerpt
I HAVE made up my mind. Having put my hand to the plough, it isn't in me to back out of a duty when duty and one's own wishes sail amicably in the same canoe. I am going to give myself up to the good of mankind and the dissemination of great moral ideas.
Selected by the Society of Infinite Progress as its travelling missionary, with power to spread the most transcendental of New England ideas throughout the world, I shall take up my cross and go forth.