Maria S. (Maria Susanna) Cummins

Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1827, Maria Susanna Cummins was an American novelist whose work reached an enormous readership in the mid-19th century. She was educated at home and at school in Lenox, Massachusetts, and became known above all for The Lamplighter (1854).

That debut novel was a remarkable commercial success, selling widely in the United States and abroad. Critics were often harsh about its sentimentality, but readers embraced it, and the book helped secure Cummins's place in American literary history.

Cummins went on to write other novels, including Mabel Vaughan and El Fureidis. She died in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1866, at just 39, but her best-known work remained one of the standout popular novels of its era.