author
Mary Carolyn Davies
1888–1974
A prolific early 20th-century writer, she moved easily between lyric poetry, children's verse, short fiction, and plays. Her life ended with years of mystery, but her work still stands out for its clarity, feeling, and range.
1 Audiobook
A Little Freckled Person: A Book of Child Verse
by Mary Carolyn Davies
About the author
Born in Sprague, Washington, in 1888, she grew up in Portland, Oregon and became known as a poet, short story writer, playwright, and novelist. As a student, she attended the University of California, Berkeley for a year, where she won poetry prizes early on and showed the promise that would shape her literary career.
She published widely in the 1910s and 1920s and became especially admired for lyric poems and children's verse. Her books include The Drums in Our Street, Youth Riding, and Marriage Songs, and she was also active in literary circles in both New York and Oregon, including leadership roles in regional writing organizations.
Later in life, she returned to New York and gradually disappeared from public view, which led to uncertainty around the details of her final years. More recent reference sources identify her death as taking place in 1974, helping fill in a long-standing gap in her story.