author
S. T. (Sarah Towne) Martyn
1805–1879
A 19th-century American writer and editor, she blended religious conviction with a gift for storytelling in historical fiction, devotional writing, and Civil War-era work. Her career also reached into reform publishing, especially in the temperance press.
1 Audiobook
Our Village in War-time
by S. T. (Sarah Towne) Martyn
About the author
Born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, in 1805, Sarah Towne Smith Martyn wrote under the names Sarah Towne Martyn and Mrs. S. T. Martyn. Reference works identify her as an American author and reformer, and note that she was the daughter of Ethan and Bathsheba Sanford Smith. She later married Job H. Martyn.
Sources on her life describe an unusually strong education for a woman of her time, shaped in part by her father’s scholarly background. She went on to build a varied literary career that included editing and publishing work as well as authorship. Biographical references credit her with roles connected to temperance periodicals including Olive Plant and Ladies’ Temperance Advocate, The True Advocate, and White Banner (later Ladies’ Wreath).
Martyn is remembered for a wide range of books, from religious and biographical writing such as Women of the Bible to fiction and semi-historical works including Our Village in War-time and The Hopes of Hope Castle. She died in New York in 1879, leaving behind a body of writing that reflects both moral purpose and a strong feel for 19th-century popular reading.