Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, an abolitionist and the founder of thePerkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. Samuel Gridley Howe's famous pupil Laura Bridgman was Laura's namesake.

Julia Ward Howe, Laura's mother, was famous for writing the words to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

In 1871 Laura married Henry Richards. He would accept a management position in 1876 at his family's paper mill at Gardiner, Maine, where the couple moved with their three children.

In 1917 Laura won a Pulitzer Prize for Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, a biography, which she co-authored with her sister, Maud Howe Elliott. Her children's book Tirra Lirra won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1959.

A pre-kindergarten to second grade Elementary School in Gardiner, Mainehonors her name.

Works:
•   St. Nicholas Magazine (contributed poetry)
•   Baby's Rhyme Book (1878)
•  Babyhood: Rhymes and Stories, Pictures and Silhouettes for Our Little Ones (1878)
•   Baby's Story Book (1878)
•   Five Mice in a Mouse Trap (1880)
•   The Little Tyrant (1880)
•   Our Baby's Favorite (1881)
•   Sketches and Scraps (1881)
•   Baby Ways (1881)
•   The Joyous Story of Toto (1885)
•   Beauty and the Beast (retelling, 1886)
•   Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet (1886)
•   Hop o' My Thumb (retelling, 1886)
•   Kaspar Kroak's Kaleidoscope (1886)
•   L.E.R. (privately printed, 1886)
•   Tell-Tale from Hill and Dale (1886)
•   Toto's Merry Winter (1887)
•   Julia Ward Howe Birthday-Book (1889)
•   In My Nursery (1890)
•  Captain January (later made into a movie with Shirley Temple, 1891)
•   Star Bright (Captain January sequel, 1927)
•   The Hildegarde Series
•   Queen Hildegarde (1889)
•   Hildegarde's Holiday (1891)
•   Hildegarde's Home (1892)
•   Hildegarde's Neighbors (1895)
•   Hildegarde's Harvest (1897)
•   The Melody Series
•   Melody (1893)
•   Marie (1894)
•   Bethsada Pool (1895)
•   Rosin the Beau (1898)
•   The Margaret Series
•   Three Margarets (1897)
•   Margaret Montfort (1898)
•   Peggy (1899)
•   Rita (1900)
•   Fernley House (1901)
•   The Merryweathers (1904)
•   Glimpses of the French Court (1893)
•   When I Was Your Age (1893)
•   Narcissa, or the Road to Rome (1894)
•   Five Minute Stories (1895)
•   Jim of Hellas, or In Durance Vile (1895)
•   Nautilus (1895)
•   Isla Heron (1896)
•   "Some Say" and Neighbors in Cyrus (1896)
•   The Social Possibilities of a Country Town (1897)
•   Love and Rocks (1898)
•   Chop-Chin and the Golden Dragon (1899)
•   Quicksilver Sue (1899)
•   The Golden-Breasted Kootoo (1899)
•   Sundown Songs (1899)
•   For Tommy and Other Stories (1900)
•   Snow-White, or The House in the Wood (1900)
•   Geoffrey Strong (1901)
•   Mrs. Tree (1902)
•   The Hurdy-Gurdy (1902)
•   More Five Minute Stories (1903)
•   The Green Satin Gown (1903)
•   The Tree in the City (1903)
•   Mrs. Tree's Will (1905)
•   The Armstrongs (1905)
•   The Piccolo (1906)
•   The Silver Crown, Another Book of Fables (1906)
•   At Gregory's House (1907)
•  Grandmother, the Story of a Life that Never was Lived (1907)
•   Ten Ghost Stories (1907)
•   The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories (1908)
•   The Wooing of Calvin Parks (1908)
•   A Happy Little Time (1910)
•   Up to Calvin's (1910)
•   On Board the Mary Sands (1911)
•   Jolly Jingles (1912)
•   Miss Jimmy (1913)
•   The Little Master (1913)
•   Three Minute Stories (1914)
•   The Pig Brother Play-Book (1915)
•   Fairy Operettas (1916)
•   Pippin, a Wandering Flame (1917)
•   A Daughter of Jehu (1918)
•   To Arms! Songs of the Great War (1918)
•   Honor Bright: A Story for Girls (1920)
•   In Blessed Cyrus (1921)
•   The Squire (1923)
•   Acting Charades (1924)
•   Seven Oriental Operettas (1924)
•   Honor Bright's New Adventure (1925)
•   Biographies