Mary Johnston

Born on November 21, 1870, in Buchanan, Virginia, Mary Johnston became one of the most popular American novelists of the early twentieth century. She wrote nearly two dozen historical novels, blending romance, adventure, and carefully researched episodes from the past. Her best-known book, To Have and To Hold (1900), was a hugely successful story set in colonial Virginia.

Johnston’s other notable works include The Long Roll, Cease Firing, The Goddess of Reason, and Hagar. Alongside her fiction, she was a suffragist and social advocate whose writing often explored women’s independence and equality. She spent her later years in Virginia, where she built a home near Warm Springs and died on May 9, 1936.