Margaret Hope Bacon (1921–2011)

Margaret Hope Bacon, née Borchardt, was born in New York City. Her father was an artist and she attended progressive schools. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 at Antioch College in Ohio, where she met her future husband, S. Allen Bacon. After the couple married and had three children, she wrote freelance articles for national magazines such as Parents and Good Housekeeping. She joined the Society of Friends -- known as Quakers -- in 1950 and worked as assistant director of information services for the American Friends Service Committee for 22 years. From 1969 through 2007, she wrote more than a dozen fiction and nonfiction works, many of them biographies about leading Quakers. Among her most popular books were The Quiet Rebels: The Story of Quakers in America (1969) and Valiant Friend: The Life of Lucretia Mott (1980). Her memoir, Love Is the Hardest Lesson, was published in 1999. She was a longtime trustee and vice president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.