early 90's she entered "The Takin' In of Old Mis' Lane" in a McClure's Magazine contest for the best short story and won the first prize of $500 over 1000 competitors. Several years later, in 1914, she won an other $500 in a similar contest offered by Collier's, with the story "The Message of Anne Laura Sweet."
Books came next, at first by local publishers and then by the large Macmillan Company of New York. Following is a descriptive bibliography of her writings:
A Bunch of Western Clover. New Whatcom, Washington. Edson & Irish, Publishers. 1894.
This was her first book, a miniature paper-bound brochure, of 24 pages. It is now so rare that probably not more than a dozen copies are in existence. It contained "Four-Leaf Clover" and 25 other short poems, with two specifically about Oregon—"Sunrise on the Willamette" and "The Grand Ronde Valley."
The Flower That Grew in the Sand and Other Stories. Seattle. The Calvert Company. 1896.
This had illustrations by Frank Calvert, and its whole attractive format caused Eastern critics to express surprise that a book could be so well published in a far western town like Seattle. It was made up of 11 short stories that she had contributed to magazines, including the McClure's prize story. It was given favorable reviews. One who thought particularly well of it was William Henry Thorne, editor of the Globe Quarterly Review, New York, who had a heavy grouch against Joaquin Miller and resented the way other reviewers compared her work with his:
In clippings of notices that accompany the book, the Chicago Journal, the Northwest Magazine, the Chicago Graphic and other papers, plainly ignorant of all literary discrimination, compare Mrs. Higginson's work with Joaquin Miller's, intending to compliment Mrs. Higginson by such comparisons.
