Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (October 31, 1852 - March 13, 1930) was a prominent American author. She was born in Massachusetts and attended Mount Holyoke College during the 1870-1 academic year. She later completed her studies in Brattleboro. Freeman spent most of her life in Massachusetts and Vermont. She began writing children's stories in her teenage years to support her family and quickly found success. Her best works were written between 1880 and 1900, while she lived in Randolph, producing over twenty volumes of short stories and novellas. Her most acclaimed works are considered to be two collections of short stories, "A Humble Romance and Other Stories" (1887) and "A New England Nun and Other Stories" (1891). Her stories depict life in New England and are among the best in the genre. In April 1926, Freeman was the first to be awarded the William Dean Howells Medal for distinction in fiction by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She passed away in Metuchen and was buried in a New Jersey cemetery.