author
Mary Synon
1881–1987
A Chicago writer and teacher, she moved easily between fiction, biography, and patriotic nonfiction. Her story "None So Blind" earned early notice, and her long career also included decades of drama teaching and a school of dramatic arts.
1 Audiobook
My country's part
by Mary Synon
About the author
Born in Chicago in 1881, Mary Synon built a varied writing career that reached across several kinds of books and magazines. Her short story None So Blind, published in Harper's Magazine in October 1917, was chosen for Best Short Stories of 1917, and her work was also adapted for the 1917 film The Innocent Sinner.
Records of her books show a broad range of interests. They include the wartime volume My Country's Part (1918), the political biography McAdoo, the Man and His Times (1924), the novel The Good Red Bricks (1929), and later Mother Emily of Sinsinawa, American Pioneer (1955). This mix suggests a writer comfortable with both storytelling and real-life subjects.
Synon was also active as a teacher. According to film-biographical listings, she ran the Mary Synon School of Dramatic Arts in Chicago for more than 40 years and taught drama at Mercy High School. She died in Naperville, Illinois, on April 1, 1987.