Kate Dickinson Sweetser (1870-1939) was an American author known in her time for writing juvenile fiction and compilations. She was born in New York City to Charles H. and Mary N. Sweetser. Her great-grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, was one of the founders of Amherst College in Massachusetts; she was also the cousin of poet Emily Dickinson. "In this small volume there are presented as complete stories the boy-lives portrayed in the works of Charles Dickens. The boys are followed only to the threshold of manhood, and in all cases the original text of the story has been kept, except where of necessity a phrase or paragraph has been inserted to connect passages"