author
Marie Manning
d. 1945
Best remembered as the writer behind "Beatrice Fairfax," she helped invent the newspaper advice column and became a lively voice in American journalism. She also wrote novels and later reflected on changing women’s lives in her nonfiction.
1 Audiobook
Judith of the Plains
by Marie Manning
About the author
Born in Washington, D.C., Marie Manning was an American journalist, columnist, and novelist who died on November 28, 1945. She is most often remembered for creating the "Dear Beatrice Fairfax" advice column in 1898, a format widely seen as an early model for the modern newspaper advice page.
Alongside her newspaper work, she published fiction including Lord Alingham, Bankrupt and Judith of the Plains. Archival records from Smith College also note later books such as Personal Reply (1943) and Ladies Now and Then (1945), showing that her writing career stretched across several decades.
Some reference sources disagree on her exact birth year, so it is safest to say that she was born in the early 1870s. What is clear is that her mix of practical advice, storytelling, and journalistic energy left a lasting mark on popular writing for women readers.