Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was born in Randolph, Massachusetts in 1852, and she moved with her family to Brattleboro, Vermont at a young age. She attended the all-women college Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College), but only for one year. She then returned to her family's home in Vermont to teach at a local girls' school. Over the ensuing years, Mary began to write, initially publishing poems in children's magazines and then transitioning to adult fiction. During those years, she began to earn a reputation for her work, which supplemented her family's small income. Once her mother and her father died, Mary moved back to Randolph, Massachusetts.
In Randolph, Mary moved in...
