author
Mary D. Maitland Kelly
A writer of imaginative children's fiction, she is best known for Peggy's Giant, a whimsical early-20th-century tale of fairies, ogres, dragons, and a gentle giant. Her work has a playful, storybook charm that makes it easy to see why it still finds readers today.
1 Audiobook
Peggy's Giant
by Mary D. Maitland Kelly
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author is easy to confirm online, but available records do show that Mary D. Maitland Kelly published the children's book Peggy's Giant. Project Gutenberg also links that work with the name M. D. Hillyard, suggesting she published under or was connected with that earlier name.
Genealogical records indicate she was Mary Dorothea Hillyard (1886–1959) and later married Rev. Evelyn Maitland Kelly in 1919. That helps explain the form of her name used on later editions and catalogs.
What can be said with confidence is that her surviving reputation rests mainly on children's fiction. Peggy's Giant stands out as a light fantasy for younger readers, and another children's title, Four of Them, is also associated with her name in library and bookseller records.