Marie Conway Oemler

Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1879, Marie Conway Oemler grew up surrounded by family stories and folklore that seem to have stayed with her as a writer. She began publishing poetry and short stories in magazines before turning to novels, and her fiction often drew on Southern settings and a warm, dramatic storytelling style.

Her first novel, Slippy McGee (1917), became her most popular book after repeated printings, and she followed it with A Woman Named Smith (1919) and The Purple Heights (1920), which also found a broad readership. Across her career, she wrote for popular magazines such as The Century Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Woman's Home Companion, and Ladies' Home Journal, and several of her books were adapted for film.

Oemler married John Norton Oemler and had two children. She died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1932, but her books have remained accessible through library collections and later digitizations, giving modern readers a chance to rediscover her mix of Southern atmosphere, sentiment, and plot-driven charm.