Author: Margaret Blount
Author: Margaret Blount (1835–1905)
Alternate Name(s): (pseudonym); Mary Field Williams Gibson (legal name); Mary O. Francis (alternate name); Winnie Woodfern (pseudonym)
Biography: Mary Field Williams Gibson was born on 25 January 1835 in Windsor, Vermont, the daughter of physician Willard Gibson. Both of her parents died while she was still a chlld and Gibson and her sisters were raised by a series of guardians. She briefly attended Thetford Academy. By 1852, she moved to Boston and began contibuting to literary newspapers under the pseudonym "Winnie Woodfern." Gibson proved herself to be a prolific writer of prose and poetry for some dozen newspapers and magazines. She had at least two short-lived marriages: the first to Alonzo Lewis; and the second to a man named Dixon. In the late 1850s, she moved to London where she adopted the pseudonym "Margaret Blount" under which her fiction appeared in England. She briefly attemped to establish her own London weekly magazine, Saturday Night, however it was short-lived (April to September 1862). Gibson returned to Vermont by 1867 now living under the name "Mary O. Francis." She continued to write and died on 2 June 1905 in Queens County, New York. (Note: I am indebted to Phil Harper for much of the details of her life.)
Author Tags:
References: Allibone; Daniel A. Cohen, "Making Hero Strong," Journal of the Early Republic (2010); Illustrated Weekly News (19 July 1862)
Fiction Titles:
- Barbara Home. 3 vol. London: John Maxwell, 1864.
- A Broken Life: A Domestic Story. 1 vol. London: Ward and Lock, 1866.