author
Mary L. Day
b. 1836
A 19th-century American memoirist, she is best remembered for writing frankly about blindness, education, family life, and the world around her. Her books offer a rare first-person view of disability and everyday life in nineteenth-century America.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1836, Mary L. Day became known for Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl (1859), a memoir drawn from her own experiences. She studied at the Maryland Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, and her writing stands out for its direct, personal voice.
She later published The World as I Have Found It in 1878, presented as a sequel to her earlier book. Together, these works made her one of the notable American memoir writers of her time, especially for readers interested in disability history and nineteenth-century life.
Some details of her later life remain uncertain, but sources agree that she was still living after 1883. What remains most striking is the clarity and warmth of her storytelling, which helped preserve a perspective that was rarely heard in print in her era.