Mary A. (Mary Abigail) Roe

Mary Abigail Roe was an American writer born in 1839 and remembered today both for her own books and for E. P. Roe: Reminiscences of His Life (1899), a biography of her brother Edward Payson Roe. Library and public-domain records consistently identify her as a U.S. author, and some also note the pseudonym C. M. Cornwall.

Archival records at Yale show that her papers include letters, diaries, and material documenting her life and work, and they describe her as a teacher of natural history at Los Angeles College. Those same records suggest a life that reached beyond publishing alone, combining writing, teaching, and family correspondence.

Much of her modern visibility comes from the way she helped preserve her brother's reputation, but surviving listings also show that she published fiction under her own name. Even in brief records, she comes across as a writer closely tied to family history, education, and the literary culture of late 19th-century America.