Mary E. Blain

Writing under the name Mary E. Blain, she is chiefly remembered for popular collections such as Games for All Occasions and Games for Hallowe'en. The books credited to Mary E. Blain are also linked in library and bookselling records to Mary Emma Salisbury Barse, indicating that Mary E. Blain was a pen name.

Her work belongs to a very social corner of American popular writing from the early 1900s: books of party plans, holiday amusements, riddles, and group games designed for homes, classrooms, and community gatherings. That makes her a small but appealing figure in the history of everyday entertainment writing.

Detailed biographical information is hard to confirm from the sources found here, so it is safest to focus on the books themselves and the long afterlife they have had in reprints and digital archives.