Polly Curren (1917-2011) was a writer, artist, and teacher who started her career as an author after losing her hearing in her late 20's. Her works include The Little Red Caboose That Ran Away, To Light a Torch, and The Fantastic Adventures of Wesley Riggs.

Her collaboration with illustrator Kurt Werth, Hear Ye of Boston, is a quintessential 20th century children's story which glorifies American patriotism and entrepreneurship, reaffirming democratic ideals and technical progress as key to the US ascendancy to power. Of course, little is mentioned about the real costs of this colonial enterprise. On page 9, Native Americans are highlighted as the original inhabitants of Boston, but no further mention is made as to the horrific cost paid by Native people (or African Americans) for the US “forward march of progress.”