Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, an American lecturer and author, born in Philadelphia, Oct. 28, 1842. She was the youngest of five children, whose father died when she was two years old, leaving his family in poverty. She received her early education in the free schools of the society of Friends, to which her parents belonged. At the age of 14 she made her first appearance in print, with an article on slavery in the "Liberator." At 17 she left school, and during the next two years taught at New Brighton and in Bucks co., Pa. Her first speech was made in a meeting of the association of Progressive Friends in Philadelphia, in January, 1860, the subject being "Woman's Rights and Wrongs;" and from this time she began to speak frequently in such assemblies, chiefly on temperance and slavery. Meanwhile she obtained employment in the United States mint at Philadelphia. But in November, 1861, in a speech alluding to the action at Ball's Bluff, she said, "This battle was lost, not through ignorance and incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general;" for which she was dismissed from the mint. Thereupon she made lecturing her profession, speaking chiefly on political topics.

Early in 1863 she accepted an invitation from the republican state committee of New Hampshire to enter the canvass for the March election. Afterward she accepted an invitation to make a similar tour in Connecticut; and in the autumn of the same year she was engaged by the republican committee of Pennsylvania to speak in the mining and agricultural districts of that state. She opposed the reelection of President Lincoln in 18G4, and advocated the election of Horace Greeley to the presidency in 1872. For several years she has held a place among the regular lyceum lecturers, and has spoken in almost every part of the country. She has published a novel entitled "What Answer?" (Boston, 1868).