Holmes, Mary Jane (1825–1907)

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Holmes, Mary Jane (1825–1907)

American popular novelist. Born Mary Jane Hawes on April 5, 1825, in Brookfield, Massachusetts; died October 6, 1907, in Brockport, New York; daughter of Preston Hawes and Fanny (Olds) Hawes; married Daniel Holmes, on August 9, 1849.

Mary Jane Hawes was born on April 5, 1825, in Brookfield, Massachusetts, the fourth daughter and fifth of Preston and Fanny Hawes ' nine children. She began school at age three and was studying English grammar by age six. Mary Jane was encouraged by both of her parents to seek an education and develop her early interest in writing. At 13, she began teaching in a local school and, at 15, published her first article. She was not, however, the first published author in the family. Her uncle, the Reverend Joel Hawes of the First Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut, wrote and published sermons and addresses.

In 1849, at age 23, Mary Jane Hawes married Daniel Holmes, a Yale graduate she had met while working as a teacher. The couple moved to Kentucky where each taught at public schools in and around Versailles. Between 1850 and 1852, they ran the Glen Creek District School. Daniel then decided to study law, and they moved to Brockport, New York, where he was admitted to the bar in 1853. While the couple maintained a permanent residence in Brockport, they also traveled widely to destinations including California, the Far East, Russia, France, and England.

In 1854, Mary Jane Holmes published her first novel, Tempest and Sunshine; or, Life in Kentucky. She went on to write nearly 40 novels, approximately one a year between 1855 and 1905. In 1856, she published her best-known work, Lena Rivers. After 1859, some of her work was serialized in the New York Weekly. She was paid between $4,000 and $6,000 for each installment and retained the right to sell each story for publication as a novel. Holmes distinguished herself less by her subject matter than by her popularity and earnings. Her book sales totaled over two million, and it was said some libraries had to keep up to 20or 30 copies of eachof her works.

"I try to avoid the sensational," wrote Holmes, "and never deal in murders, or robberies, or ruined girls; but rather in domestic life as I know it to exist. I mean always to write a good, pure, natural story, such as mothers are willing their daughters should read, and such as will do good instead of harm." Community-minded, Holmes was an active member of the Episcopal Church, formed temperance and literary clubs, established a village reading room in her adopted town of Brockport, and organized soup kitchens during the depression of 1893. Although she had no children of her own, she enjoyed younger people, particularly girls, and organized literary meetings for them in her home. Mary Jane Holmes died of a stroke at age 82 on October 6, 1907. Her work, now considered conventional and sentimental, has been largely ignored in literary histories.