Who Wrote the Poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and How Did the Nursery Rhyme Become so Famous?

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Karen Hill

The poem and nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was written in 1830 by Sarah Hale, the editor of Godey’s Ladies Magazine.

She was inspired after watching young Mary Tyler’s pet lamb follow the girl to school, which, of course, was against the rules.

The poem became immortal more than fifty years later when Thomas Edison used it as the first words ever spoken and then recorded on his new invention, the phonograph.

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