author
J. Maurice Farrar
Best known for vivid 19th-century nonfiction, this little-known writer left behind portraits of both a rising American state and a celebrated stage star. The surviving record is slim, but the books suggest a sharp observer with a taste for people, places, and public life.
1 Audiobook
Mary Anderson
by J. Maurice Farrar
About the author
J. Maurice Farrar is the author of at least two known 19th-century books that are still cataloged by major public-domain and library projects: Five Years in Minnesota: Sketches of Life in a Western State (1880) and Mary Anderson / Mary Anderson: The Story of Her Life and Professional Career (1884). Those listings show Farrar working in nonfiction, with one book centered on travel and settlement in the American Midwest and another on the life of the actress Mary Anderson.
Library and archive records describe Farrar as an Englishman who spent five years in Minnesota in the late 1870s. According to the summary attached to Five Years in Minnesota, he was authorized in 1880 to lecture in Great Britain on behalf of Minnesota immigration, and his book reflects that experience by presenting the state's farming life, communities, and social world to British readers.
Beyond those works, I couldn't confirm many personal details from reliable sources, so the biographical record appears limited. What does come through clearly is Farrar's range: he wrote both promotional travel writing and literary biography, and his books have remained accessible through projects such as Project Gutenberg, the Online Books Page, and major library catalogs.