Mary MacLane

Born in Canada in 1881 and raised mostly in Butte, Montana, Mary MacLane became famous almost overnight with The Story of Mary MacLane (1902), a frank, diary-like book she wrote as a teenager. Its intense self-examination and refusal to sound proper or polite made her a celebrity and scandalized many readers at the same time.

MacLane went on to publish My Friend Annabel Lee and I, Mary MacLane, and she also worked as a journalist and wrote for early film. She was often called the "Wild Woman of Butte," a label that captured both the public fascination around her and the way she challenged expectations for women writers in her era.

Today she is remembered as an unusually modern voice: sharp, restless, self-aware, and startlingly open about desire, loneliness, and the wish to make a remarkable life. Readers who enjoy confessional writing and literary outsiders often find her work feels far ahead of its time.