Hannah Webster Foster (1758-1840) was an American novelist. In the 1770s she began writing political articles for Boston newspapers. Her epistolary novel, The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton, was published anonymously in 1797. In 1798, she published The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to Her Pupils, a commentary on female education in the United States.