Margaret Sidney was the pseudonym of American author Harriett Mulford Stone Lothrop She published nothing until 1878, at the age of 34, when she began sending short stories to Wide Awake, a children's magazine in Boston. Two of her stories, “Polly Pepper's Chicken Pie” and “Phronsie Pepper's New Shoes,” proved to be very popular with readers. Daniel Lothrop, the editor of the magazine, requested that Stone write more. The success of Harriett's short stories prompted her to write the now-famous “Five Little Peppers” series.