Bertha Mahony Miller, a US editor and publisher, was born on March13th, 1882 in Rockport, Massachusetts. After her mother's death, 11-year-old Mahony helped look after her three younger siblings. She entered local teacher-training classes after high school but left the next year to pursue studies at newly formed Simmons College in Boston. Unable to afford the four-year program in library science, she chose instead to take a year of secretarial courses.

In 1906, Mahony became a secretary for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU), a nonprofit social-service agency. Board members soon recognized her creativity and intelligence, so she was given a variety of duties. One of her favorites was organizing plays for children, and her interest in children's literature expanded as she searched through books for appropriate material.

With the support of the Union, Mahony opened the Bookshop for Boys and Girls in 1916. The creation of this Boston store devoted to children's books came at a time when most parents, booksellers and publishers did not put much thought into what children read. Mahony aimed to change this by offering a large selection of thoughtfully chosen books and seeking help from many notable librarians such as Anne Carroll Moore and Alice Jordan. Storytelling, author visits and other activities helped spark people's interest in the store, and the creation of a bookmobile extended its reach to other regions.

To coincide with（与...同时举行）the opening of the store, Mahony edited and published a buying guide of selected children's books, the first commercial list of its kind. It grouped some 1,200 books into categories based on age and subject matter and provided a brief description of each publication. The attention it drew led her to another idea. In 1924, Mahony and coworker Elinor Whitney founded The Horn Book Magazine, the first periodical devoted entirely to children. Mahony and Whitney also compiled（汇编）Realms of Gold in Children's Books(1929), a publication covering five centuries of children's literature.

Bertha Mahony Miller devoted much of her life to promoting children's literature. Her efforts enlightened（启发）consumers and encouraged publishers to expand and improve their juvenile (少年的) offerings. She is considered a figurehead of the children's literature movement.