author
Mary Ann Mann Cornelius
1829–1918
A 19th-century American writer and reformer, she paired frontier storytelling with a deep commitment to education and temperance work. Her life moved from Michigan to Arkansas, Washington, and Illinois, and her books reflect both moral purpose and a feel for everyday people.
1 Audiobook
Little Wolf: A Tale of the Western Frontier
by Mary Ann Mann Cornelius
About the author
Mary Ann Mann Cornelius was born in Pontiac, Michigan, on September 25, 1829, and became known as both an author and a social reformer. She wrote under the name Mrs. Mary A. Cornelius, and sources connect her with fiction as well as community work centered on reading, education, and reform.
She was active in the temperance movement and served as president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Arkansas. Later, while living in Tacoma, Washington, she helped establish a free reading room and circulating library for young people, showing the same public-minded spirit that appears in accounts of her writing life.
Cornelius is remembered for works including Little Wolf: A Tale of the Western Frontier and The White Flame. She died in Chicago on April 18, 1918, leaving behind the picture of a writer whose literary career was closely tied to civic service and moral reform.