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Mary E. Wilkins Freeman profile picture
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Author · 39 books

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman was born in Randolph, Massachusetts, and attended Mount Holyoke College (then, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) in South Hadley, Massachusetts, for one year, from 1870–71. Freeman's parents were orthodox Congregationalists, causing her to have a very strict childhood. Religious constraints play a key role in some of her works. She later finished her education at West Brattleboro Seminary. She passed the greater part of her life in Massachusetts and Vermont. Freeman began writing stories and verse for children while still a teenager to help support her family and was quickly successful. Her best known work was written in the 1880s and 1890s while she lived in Randolph. She produced more than two dozen volumes of published short stories and novels. She is best known for two collections of stories, A Humble Romance and Other Stories (1887) and A New England Nun and Other Stories (1891). Her stories deal mostly with New England life and are among the best of their kind. Freeman is also remembered for her novel Pembroke (1894), and she contributed a notable chapter to the collaborative novel The Whole Family (1908). In 1902 she married Doctor Charles M. Freeman of Metuchen, New Jersey. In April 1926, Freeman became the first recipient of the William Dean Howells Medal for Distinction in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She died in Metuchen and was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

Series

Books

The Yates Pride book cover

The Yates Pride

A Romance

1912

The Wind in the Rosebush and Other Stories of the Supernatural book cover

The Wind in the Rosebush and Other Stories of the Supernatural

1903

The Southwest Chamber book cover

The Southwest Chamber

1903

Collected Ghost Stories book cover

Collected Ghost Stories

1974

The pumpkin giant, book cover

The pumpkin giant,

1970

Jimmy Scarecrow's Christmas book cover

Jimmy Scarecrow's Christmas

2007

Shadows on the Wall book cover

Shadows on the Wall

Dark Tales by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

2022

The Revolt of Mother book cover

The Revolt of Mother

1891

Chloe Plus Olivia book cover

Chloe Plus Olivia

An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present

1994

Classic Ghost Stories by Wilkie Collins, M.R. James, Charles Dickens and Others book cover

Classic Ghost Stories by Wilkie Collins, M.R. James, Charles Dickens and Others

1930

The Copy-Cat and Other Stories book cover

The Copy-Cat and Other Stories

1914

Damas oscuras book cover

Damas oscuras

Cuentos de fantasmas de escritoras victorianas eminentes

2017

The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories book cover

The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories

2000

The Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Megapack book cover

The Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Megapack

59 Classic Stories

2013

A Mary Wilkins Freeman Reader book cover

A Mary Wilkins Freeman Reader

1997

A New England Nun and Other Stories book cover

A New England Nun and Other Stories

1891

Two Friends

1887

The Ultimate Christmas Collection book cover

The Ultimate Christmas Collection

2020

A Stolen Christmas book cover

A Stolen Christmas

1887

Luella Miller book cover

Luella Miller

1902

The Best Short Stories of All Time, Volume VII book cover

The Best Short Stories of All Time, Volume VII

2020

The Revolt of "Mother" and Other Stories book cover

The Revolt of "Mother" and Other Stories

1891

Evelina's Garden book cover

Evelina's Garden

1899

The Big Book of the Masters of Horror book cover

The Big Book of the Masters of Horror

120+ authors and 1000+ stories

2018

The Big Book of Christmas book cover

The Big Book of Christmas

140+ authors and 400+ novels, novellas, stories, poems & carols

2020

Góticas y tenebrosas book cover

Góticas y tenebrosas

Mujeres que cuentan historias oscuras

2021

Jane Field book cover

Jane Field

1892

Selected Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman book cover

Selected Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

1983

The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories book cover

The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories

1987

Old Woman Magoun

2025

Doc. Gordon book cover

Doc. Gordon

1906

The Green Door book cover

The Green Door

1910

Classic Horror Stories book cover

Classic Horror Stories

2015

The Lost Ghost book cover

The Lost Ghost

2001

The Shadows on The Wall book cover

The Shadows on The Wall

1903

Pembroke book cover

Pembroke

1894

A Humble Romance and Other Stories book cover

A Humble Romance and Other Stories

1887

Lost Ghosts book cover

Lost Ghosts

The Complete Weird Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

2023

The Butterfly House book cover

The Butterfly House

1912

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