Mary D. (Mary Dow) Brine

Mary D. Brine, also known as Mary Dow Brine, was an American poet, novelist, and lyricist. Reliable library and reference sources identify her as the author of the widely anthologized poem Somebody's Mother, and they also point to My Boy and I; or, On the Road to Slumberland as one of her most notable books.

She wrote extensively for children, with a body of work that includes poems, stories, lullabies, and gift books published in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her writing has a warm, moral, family-centered tone that helped keep it in circulation through reprints, library collections, and online archives.

Some catalog records and pages disagree about her birth year, so it's best to treat that detail with caution. What is clear is that she remained an active and recognizable literary name of her era, especially in children's literature and popular verse.