author
Annie Maria Barnes
1857–1933
A lively South Carolina writer who published from childhood onward, she built a career as a journalist, editor, and storyteller under her own name and the pen name "Cousin Annie." Her work moved easily between newspapers, magazines, fiction, and writing for younger readers.
1 Audiobook
The Red Miriok
by Annie Maria Barnes
About the author
Born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1857, she began writing unusually early. Sources describe her sending an article to the Atlanta Constitution at age eleven and becoming a regular correspondent for the paper while still in her teens. She later became known as a journalist, editor, and author, sometimes signing her work as "Cousin Annie."
Her career was wide-ranging. She edited and published The Acanthus, a paper for young readers, and wrote fiction, sketches, and articles for periodicals. She is also associated with religious and missionary work, and her writing often seems to have grown out of a life closely connected to both print culture and public service.
Barnes is remembered as a versatile late-19th- and early-20th-century American author whose work reached readers through newspapers, magazines, and books. The available sources agree that she died in 1933, though some later references note conflicting dates, so that detail is sometimes reported with caution.