Mary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild. It is characterized by a sincere wonderment at the impact of natural imagery, conveyed in unadorned language. In 2007, she was declared to be the country's best-selling poet.
Mary Pat Fisher is an author, her books include the inspirational book Heart of Gold: The Light Within Life and Living religions : an encyclopedia of the world's faiths.
Mary Pope Osborne is an American author of children's books. She is best known as the author of the Magic Tree House series, which as of 2017 sold more than 134 million copies worldwide. Both the series and Osborne have won awards, sometimes for Osborne's charitable efforts at promoting children's literacy. One of four children, Osborne moved around in her childhood before attending the University of North Carolina. Following college, Osborne traveled before moving to New York City. She somewhat spontaneously began to write, with her first book being published in 1982. She would go on to write a variety of other kinds of children's and young adult books before starting the Magic Tree House series in 1992. Osborne's sister Natalie Pope Boyce has written several compendium books to the Magic Tree House series, sometimes with Osborne's husband Will.
Mary Pride is an American author and magazine producer on homeschooling and topics from a theologically conservative stance within Christian fundamentalism. She is best known for her writings on women’s roles and her homeschoooling works, while she has also written on parental rights and the need to shelter children from what she has deemed "corrupting influences" from modern culture. For her role in authoring guides for the homeschooling movement, Pride has been described as "the queen of the home school movement" and as a "homeschooling guru". Stemming from her first book, The Way Home, she is also considered a primary source in the philosophy of the fundamentalist Christian Quiverfull movement.
Mary Quintard Govan Steele was an American author and naturalist. She wrote over twenty books, mainly for children. One of them, Journey Outside, was a Newbery Honor Book. Steele sometimes wrote under the names Wilson Gage and J. N. Darby.
Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews was an American writer. She is best known for a widely read short story about US President Abraham Lincoln, "The Perfect Tribute", which was adapted for film twice and sold 600,000 copies when published as a standalone volume.
Mary Ritter Beard was an American historian, author, women's suffrage activist, and women's history archivist who was also a lifelong advocate of social justice. As a Progressive Era reformer, Beard was active in both the labor and women's rights movements. She also authored several books on women's role in history including On Understanding Women (1931), America Through Women's Eyes, and Woman as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities (1946), her major work. In addition, she collaborated with her husband, historian Charles Austin Beard, as coauthor of seven textbooks, most notably The Rise of American Civilization (1927), two volumes, and America in Midpassage: A Study of the Idea of Civilization (1939) and The American Spirit (1942), the third and fourth volume of The Rise of American Civilization series. A standalone book, Basic History of the United States, was their best-selling work.
