{{short description|American novelist}} {{Excessive examples|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Mary Jane Holmes | image = MARY JANE HOLMES.jpg | caption = "A Woman of the Century" | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1825|4|5}} | birth_place = Brookfield, Massachusetts | death_date = {{death date and age|1907|10|6|1825|4|5}} | death_place = Brockport, New York | language = | signature = | spouse = | children = }} '''Mary Jane Holmes''' (April 5, 1825 – October 6, 1907)<ref name=Urness>{{cite book |last1= Urness |first1= Carol L.|editor1-first= Edward T.|editor1-last= James|others= James, Janet Wilson; Boyer, Paul S.|title= Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rVLOhGt1BX0C&q=Mary+Jane+Holmes+1907+brockport&pg=PP1 |access-date= June 18, 2010 |volume= II: G-O|year= c. 1971 |publisher= The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|location= Cambridge, MA|isbn= 0-674-62734-2|pages= 208–209|chapter= Holmes, Mary Jane Hawes|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rVLOhGt1BX0C&q=Mary+Jane+Holmes+1907+brockport&pg=RA1-PA208}}</ref> was an American author who published 39 novels, as well as short stories. Her first novel sold 250,000 copies; and she had total sales of 2 million books in her lifetime, second only to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her books included: "Tempest and Sunshine" (1854), "English Orphans" (1855), "Homestead on the Hillside" (1855), "Lena Rivers" (1856), "Meadow Brook" (1857), "Dora Deane" (1858), "Cousin Maude" (1860), "Marian Gray" 186^, "Hugh Worthington" (1864), "Cameron Vide" (1867). "Rose Mather" (1868), "Ethelyn’s Mistake" (1869), "Edna Browning" (1872), "Mildred" (1877), "Forest House" (1879), "Daisy Thornton," "Queenie Hetherton" (1883), "Christmas Stories" (1884), "Bessie's Fortune" (1885). "Gretchen" (1887), "Marguerite" (1891).<ref name="WillardLivermore-1893">{{cite book |last1=Willard |first1=Frances Elizabeth |author1-link=Frances Willard |last2=Livermore |first2=Mary Ashton Rice |author2-link=Mary Livermore |title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Mary_Jane_Holmes |year=1893 |page=390 |publisher=Charles Wells Moulton |chapter=HOLMES, Mrs. Mary Jane}} {{Source-attribution}}</ref>
Portraying domestic life in small-town and rural settings, she examined gender relationships, as well as those of class and race. She also dealt with slavery and the American Civil War with a strong sense of moral justice. Since the late 20th century, she has received fresh recognition and reappraisal, although her popular work was excluded from most 19th-century literary histories.
==Early life and education== '''Mary Jane Hawes''' was born in Brookfield, Massachusetts in 1825, the fifth of Fanny (Olds) and Preston Hawes' nine children.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kellogg|first=Day Otis and Smith, William Robertson|title=The Encyclopædia Britannica: latest edition. A dictionary of arts, sciences and general literature, Volume 27|date=1902|publisher=Werner|page=305|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBJGAQAAIAAJ&q=Mary+Jane+Hawes+brookfield+ma&pg=PA305}}</ref> The household was economically modest, but the parents encouraged intellectual endeavor.<ref name=Legacy/> She may also have been influenced by her uncle, Rev. Joel Hawes (1789–1867), for many years minister at the First Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut, and known for his published sermons and other writings. Preston Hawes died when Mary Jane was 12 and she started teaching school at 13. Interested in writing from an early age, she published her first story at 15.<ref name=Urness/><ref name=hawes>{{Cite AmCyc |wstitle= Hawes, Joel |volume= VIII |page= |last= |first= |author-link= |short=1 }}</ref>
==Marriage and family== On August 9, 1849, Hawes married Daniel Holmes, a graduate of Yale College from New York City. They moved for a time to Versailles, Kentucky in the Bluegrass Region, where they both taught for a few years. These were formative years, as Holmes used the small-town, rural setting and people she knew as inspiration for her first novel and others set in the antebellum South.<ref name=Urness/><ref name=Legacy/>
In 1852 the Holmes family returned to New York and settled in Brockport, a short distance west of Rochester, where Daniel read law and was ultimately admitted to the bar. He went into practice and also served in local politics. They had no children. Holmes' supportive marriage was one she used as a model for several portrayed in her novels.<ref name=Legacy/>
==Career== Holmes used her experiences in Kentucky for the material of several novels. In 1854 at the age of 29, she published her first novel, ''Tempest and Sunshine''. Its central girl characters, Julia and Fanny, were reportedly modeled on the local family of John Singleton and his daughters Bettie and Susan.<ref>Ermina Jett Darnell, ''Forks of Elkhorn Church: With Genealogies of Early Members'' (on-line), Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1946, p. 229</ref> The portrayal of girls with contrasting characters was resolved with a sense of moral justice, as they both traveled personal journeys of growth. While sales of the novel were slow at first, they steadily continued, and ultimately totaled about 250,000 copies. Reprinted in 1886, this novel was her most popular.<ref name=Legacy>[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/legacy/v025/25.1.yarington.html Earl Yarington, "Mary Jane Holmes"], ''Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers'', Vol. 25, No. 1, 2008, p. 146, accessed 14 Aug 2010</ref> She was first published by Appleton, and later for 20 years by G.W. Carleton, which was succeeded by G.W. Dillingham, all of New York City.<ref name=Urness/> As ''The Nation'' noted in its obituary at her death: <blockquote>It is an eternal paradox of our world of letters that the books which enjoy the largest sale are barely recognized as existing by the guardians of literary tradition. Mrs. Mary Jane Holmes, who died Sunday at Brockport, N.Y., wrote thirty-nine novels with aggregate sales, it is said, of more than two million copies, and yet she had not even a paragraph devoted to her life and works in the histories of American Literature. ("The Week")<ref name=Legacy/></blockquote>
The theme of most of her novels was domestic life, reflecting society in the antebellum years, as well as during and after the American Civil War. Her books were very popular and she was published by major firms in New York. Her sales were second nationally only to those of Harriet Beecher Stowe; in total Holmes sold more than two million books.<ref name=Legacy/>
As the literary scholar Judith Fetterley notes: <blockquote>[T]the literature of mid-nineteenth century women is essentially about women. Thus the first truth the women have to tell is that not all Americans are male and the assumption that an American text must be a man's story told by men is partisan to say the least. Were this truth to be told, of course, it would require a redefinition of what constitutes an American theme; it would require the possibility that a story by a woman about women could be an American text...at issue equally is the matter of perspective. For a man's story told by a man is not necessarily the same as a man's story told by a woman.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MHzSufsk4PwC&q=Provisions:+A+Reader+from+19th-Century+American+Women Judith Fetterley, ''Provisions: A Reader from 19th-Century American Women''], Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985, p. 23, accessed 17 Aug 2010</ref></blockquote>
Critics of the time and early 20th century classified Holmes' and other women authors' work as "sentimental" and downplayed it because of appeal to the common reader. Recent critics have appreciated how Holmes grappled seriously with issues of gender, race and class, as well as slavery and the Civil War. She created attractive characters who also had flaws, with whom readers could identify. The scholar Earl Yarington notes that her heroines "go out, often on their own accord, into an uncertain world and make new lives for themselves." This experience provides the heroine "with an education so she can learn how to thrive and improve not only her own conditions, but also the conditions of others."<ref name=Legacy/> Her work appealed to many readers at a time of rapidly expanding literacy among women.
While Holmes traveled extensively to Europe and Asia, trips from which she collected art, she continued to write and publish about one book annually. She wrote a total of 39 novels, plus numerous short stories and novellas. Many were first serialized in the ''New York Weekly'' "storypaper". The popularity of her novel ''Marian Grey'' (1863) reportedly led to a jump in the paper's circulation by 50,000, and it reached 100,000 by 1865.<ref name=Urness/><ref>[https://chnm.gmu.edu/dimenovels/index.html%3Fp=415.html Felicia L. Carr, "Mary J. Holmes"], ''American Women's Dime Novels Project: Dime Novels for Women, 1870-1920'', George Mason University, accessed 14 Aug 2010, link updated 20 Aug 2024</ref>
Holmes was active in the Episcopal Church and its charitable activities. She started local activities to share her collection from her travels and education with young women.
==Death and legacy== Holmes died in 1907, at the age of 82, in Brockport.<ref name=Urness/> Her obituary was published a few days later in the ''Nation'',<ref>"Mary J. Holmes", "The Week," ''Nation'', 10 Oct 1907, p. 316</ref> reflecting her stature. Long excluded from literary histories of the nineteenth century, the author was reappraised by scholars in the late 20th and early 21st century, who recognized her achievements and the value of her work.<ref name=Legacy/>
==Publications== {{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=29892525}} *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17260 ''Tempest and Sunshine''] (New York, 1854); reprint New York: G.W. Dillingham (1886) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13878 ''The English Orphans''] (1855) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14089 ''The Homestead on the Hillside''] ''and other Tales'' (Auburn, 1855) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12835 '''Lena Rivers''] (1856) *''Meadow Brook'' (New York, 1857) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6352 ''Dora Deane, or the East India Uncle''], and [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11280 ''Maggie Miller, or, Old Hagar's Secret''] (1858) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3619 ''Cousin Maude''] ''and'' [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5990 ''Rosamond''] (1860) *''Marian Grey; or The Heiress of Redstone Hall'' (1863) *''Hugh Worthington'' (1863) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4721 ''Darkness and Daylight''] (1864) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15607 ''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) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12104 ''Ethelyn's Mistake''] (1869) *''Millbank; or, Roger Irving's Ward'' (1871) *''Edna Browning; or The Leighton Homestead'' (1872) *''West Lawn'', and [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19702 ''The Rector of St. Mark's''] (1874) *[https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2343795W/Edith_Lyle ''Edith Lyle'' or ''Edith Lyle's Secret''] (1876) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70986'' Mildred''] (1877) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37467 ''Daisy Thornton''] and [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37476 ''Jessie Graham''] (1878) *''Glen's Creek'' (1878) *''Forrest House'' (1879) *''Chateau d'Or'' (1880) *''Red Bird'' (1880) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71099 ''Maggie Lee! Bad Spelling, Diamonds, The Answered Prayer''] (1881) *''Madeline'' (1881) *''Queenie Hetherton'' (1883) *''Christmas Stories'' (1884) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15275 ''Bessie's Fortune''] (1885) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15321 ''Tracy Park''] *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40702 ''Gretchen''] (1887) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6954 ''Aikenside''] *''Red Bird's Christmas Story'' (1892) *''Paul Ralston'' (1897) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70966 ''The Tracy Diamonds''] (1899) *[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74886 ''Rena's Experiment''] (1904)
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071121071820/http://etext.virginia.edu/eaf/authors/mjh.htm "Mary Jane Holmes: Works in the Collection"], ''Early American Fiction'', University of Virginia Library *[https://books.google.com/books?id=yokG1TkADYoC&q=Woman%E2%80%99s+Fiction:+A+Guide+to+Novels+by+and+about+Women+in+America+1820%E2%80%9370 Nina Baym, ''Woman's Fiction: A Guide to Novels by and about Women in America 1820–70''], Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1978, reprint 1993. *[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=76860589 Denise D. Knight and Emmanuel S. Nelson, ''Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook Book''], Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997 *Grace Carson,"The Works of Mary Jane Holmes, A Brockport Union Catalog." M. A. Thesis. SUNY College at Brockport, 1988. *Elaine K. Ginsberg, "Mary Jane Hawes Holmes." ''American Women Writers'', Vol. 2, Ed. Lina Mainiero. New York: Ungar, 1980, pp. 317–19. *[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y37vuwoVc3EC Mary Kelley, ''Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction''], New York: Oxford UP, 1984. *Donald A. Koch, "Introduction: Tempest and Sunshine by Mary Jane Holmes and The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins", ''Popular American Fiction'', Ed. Koch. New York: Odyssey, 1968. v–xviii. *[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb193/is_200804/ai_n32277353/?tag=content;col1 Earl Yarington, "Legacy Profile: Mary Jane Holmes"], ''Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers'', 2008 *Helen Waite Papashvily, ''All the Happy Endings: A Study of the Domestic Novel in America, the Women Who Wrote It, the Women Who Read It, in the Nineteenth Century'', 1956; reprint 1972. *Fred Lewis Pattee, ''The Feminine Fifties'', New York: 1940; reprint New York: Kennikat Press, 1966. *[https://www.jstor.org/pss/25679271 Barbara J. McGuire, "The Orphan's Grief: Transformational Tears and the Maternal Fetish in Mary Jane Holmes's 'Dora Deane; or, the East-India Uncle'"], ''Legacy'' 15 (1998): 171–87. *"Noted Authoress Passes Away." [Rochester] ''Republic Democrat'', 10 Oct. 1907: 1. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071216060353/http://web.princeton.edu/sites/english/NEH/TOMPKINS.HTM Jane Tompkins, ""Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Politics of Literary History"], in ''Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790-1860'', New York: Oxford UP, 1985, pp. 122–146. *Jane Tompkins, ''Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790–1860'', New York: Oxford UP, 1985.
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Mary Jane Holmes}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=1239 | name=Mary Jane Holmes}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Mary Jane Holmes |sopt=t}} * {{Librivox author |id=2267}} * {{OL author|317261A}} * {{Find a Grave|grid=13018585}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holmes, Mary Jane}} Category:1825 births Category:1907 deaths Category:19th-century American novelists Category:People from Brookfield, Massachusetts Category:People from Versailles, Kentucky Category:Novelists from Kentucky Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Activists from Kentucky Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century Category:American women short story writers Category:Novelists from Massachusetts Category:19th-century American short story writers Category:19th-century American women novelists