Mary King Waddington

Born in New York City in 1833, she was the daughter of Charles King, a president of Columbia College, and the granddaughter of statesman Rufus King. In 1874 she married the French diplomat and statesman William Henry Waddington and went on to spend much of her life in France.

She is best known for writing about the world she knew firsthand: official dinners, political circles, travel, and the private side of public life. Books including Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, 1883–1900, Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, and My First Years as a Frenchwoman, 1876–1879 made her an engaging witness to European society and diplomacy.

What makes her work appealing now is its mix of intelligence and immediacy. She wrote with the eye of both an insider and an outsider—close enough to power to see it clearly, but still curious about the people and customs around her.