Lifespan: 1825-1907
Nationality: American
Genres: Domestic Fiction
Types of Work: Novels, Short Stories
Contemporaries:
Style: Stories of domestic life in small towns and rural settings; examines the role of gender, class, and race with a strong sense of moral justice. Sometimes dealt with slavery and the American Civil War.
Bio: Mary Jane Hawes was born in Brookfield, Massachusets on April 5, 1825 to Preston Hawes and Fanny Olds. Though the family was of moderate means, the children were encouraged to pursue intellectual endeavors. Following the death of her father, Mary Jane began teaching school when she was only 13 years of age. Her first story was published at age 15.
Mary Ann married Daniel Holmes on August 9, 1849 and the couple moved to Versailles, Kentucky. She used the small-town setting and local people of Versailles as an inspiration for her novels set in the antebellum south, including her first novel, Tempest and Sunshine, published in 1854.
Though her books were very popular during her lifetime, and her sales were second only to those of Harriet Beecher Stowe, she received very little recognition from critics and the press and was excluded from literary histories of the 19th century. She published about one book a year, totaling 39 novels and numerous short stories and novellas.
Mary Ann and her husband had no children. She died October 6, 1907, in Brockport, New York.
Novels:
Tempest and Sunshine (New York, 1854)
The English Orphans (1855)
The Homestead on the Hillside, and other Tales (Auburn, 1855)
Lena Rivers (1856)
Meadow Brook (New York, 1857)
Dora Deane, or the East India Uncle, and Maggie Miller, or Hagar's Secret (1858)
Cousin Maude and Rosamond (1860)
Marian Grey (1863)
Hugh Worthington (1863)
Darkness and Daylight (1864)
The Cameron Pride, or Purified by Suffering, or Family Pride (1867)
The Christmas Font, a story for young folks (1868)
Rose Mather, a Tale of the War (1868)
Ethelyn's Mistake (1869)
Millbank (1871)
Edna Browning (1872)
West Lawn, and the Rector of St. Mark's (1874)
Mildred (1877)
Daisy Thornton (1878)
Forest House (1879)
Chateau d'Or (1880)
Red Bird (1880)
Madeline (1881)
Queenie Hatherton (1883)
Christmas Stories (1884)
Bessie's Fortune (1885)
Gretchen (1887)
Edith Lyle: A Novel
Paul Ralston
Marguerite
Rena's Experiment
The Merivale Banks
Doctor Hathern's Daughters
The Cromptons
The Abandoned Farm, and Connie's Mistake
Nina, or Darkness and Daylight
Dora Freeman; or, West Lawn, and the Rector of St Marks
Mrs Hallam's Companion