Mary Virginia Terhune
Mary Virginia Terhune , also known by her penname Marion Harland, was an American author. She began her career writing articles at the age of 14, using various pennames until 1853, when she settled on Marion Harland. Her first novel Alone was published in 1854 and would go on to sell over 100,000 copies. For fifteen years she was a prolific writer of bestselling womens fiction novels, as well as writing numerous serial works, short stories, and essays for magazines. After marrying Presbyterian minister Edward Payson Terhune in 1856, Terhune had six children, though three died as infants. In the 1870s, shortly after the birth of her last son Albert Payson, she broke from her novel writing and published Common Sense in the Household A Manual of Practical Housewifery, a cookbook and domestic guide for housewives.
Born December 21, 1830 in Dennisville, Virginia, Mary Virginia Hawes was the third of nine children born to Samuel Pierce and Judith Anna Smith Hawes. Terhune was home schooled until her family moved to Richmond, Virginia in 1844, where she attended a girls seminary school for two years of formal education. At the age of fourteen, Hawes began writing articles for area newspapers under various pseudonyms.
Source: Wikipedia