Mary Johnston was born on November 21, 1870, in Buchanan, Virginia, to John and Elizabeth Johnston. Her father was a lawyer. The family lived in Buchanan until around 1887, when they moved to Birmingham, Alabama. She briefly attended the Atlanta Female Institute. She published her first novel, Prisoners of Hope, in 1898, and she soon became a prominent novelist. She moved to Richmond, Virginia, around 1902. She travelled internationally in 1908, and her passport application described her as 5 feet, 3 ½ inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes.

 

She was a member of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, and she published articles championing women’s suffrage. She addressed the Virginia General Assembly in January 1912, and she spoke at the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C., in 1913. By 1920, she was living with her siblings in Warm Springs, Virginia. She died of Bright’s disease in Warm Springs on May 9, 1936.

 

Image: Mary Johnston (courtesy Wikicommons)

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