In the summer of 1852, Fern was hired by the publisher Oliver Dyer at twice her salary to publish a regular column exclusively in his New York newspaper "Musical World and Times"; she was the first woman to have a regular column. The next year, Dyer helped her find a publisher for her first two books: "Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio" (1853), a selection of her more sentimental columns, and "Little Ferns for Fanny's Little Friends" (1853), a children's book. She had to reveal her legal name to the publishers. As it was then still Farrington and disagreeable to her, she tried to keep her name secret. The former book sold 70,000 copies in its first year, "a phenomenal figure for the time."