author
Margaret C. (Margaret Cockburn) Conkling
1814–1890
Remembered for lively 19th-century books on manners, history, and moral storytelling, this American writer moved easily between practical advice and biographical narrative. Her work includes popular volumes on social conduct as well as books about the mother and wife of George Washington.
1 Audiobook
The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion or, Familiar Letters to his Nephews
by Margaret C. (Margaret Cockburn) Conkling
About the author
Born in Albany County, New York, in 1814, Margaret Cockburn Conkling was an American author from a prominent family; she was the daughter of judge and politician Alfred Conkling. Reference sources identify her as the writer of works including The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion, Memoirs of the Mother and Wife of Washington, and the novel Isabel; or, Trials of the Heart.
Her writing suggests a broad interest in both everyday behavior and historical character. Alongside guidance books on conduct, she published biographical work centered on Mary Ball Washington and Martha Washington, presenting the lives of women connected to the early United States in an accessible, popular form.
She died in 1890. Although she is not as widely read today as some of her contemporaries, her books offer a clear window into 19th-century American ideas about manners, morality, and domestic life.