Mary Johnston

Mary Johnston was an American novelist and suffrage advocate born in Buchanan, Virginia, in 1870. Largely self-educated, she grew into one of the country's most popular writers of historical fiction and became the first woman to top American best-seller lists in the twentieth century.

Her breakthrough came with To Have and to Hold in 1900, and she went on to write many novels, including Audrey, The Goddess of Reason, and Hagar. Her fiction often drew on American history, combining romance, adventure, and a strong sense of place that made her especially well known to a wide general audience.

Beyond her novels, she was active in the woman suffrage movement in Virginia and used her public reputation to support broader social causes. She died in 1936, but her work still stands as a vivid example of early bestselling historical fiction written by a woman who was also deeply engaged in public life.