Mary Holland McNeish Kinkaid (December 31, 1861 — October 20, 1948) was an American novelist and journalist.

Early life

Mary Holland McNeish was born and raised in

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...

, the daughter of John McNeish and Nettie Simpson McNeish.John W. Leonard, ed.
''Woman's Who's Who of America''
(American Commonwealth Company 1914): 459.

Career

Kinkaid worked in newspapers and magazines for about fifty years, in various capacities. She was a cartoonist at the ''Chicago Daily News'', associate editor at ''

The Delineator ''The Delineator'' was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name ''The Metropolitan Monthly.'' Its name was changed in 1875. The magazine was publis ...

'' (alongside editor

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

), assistant city editor of the ''Denver Times'' and city editor of the '' Los Angeles Herald'', among many other positions. She was also a syndicated columnist. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, she was editor at the Women's Division of Public Information under

Clara Sears Taylor Clara Sears Taylor (October 2, 1876 – August 31, 1954) was an American writer, editor, publicist, and government official, appointed in 1920 by President Woodrow Wilson to serve on the Washington D.C. rent commission. She was the first woman appo ...

, publishing from Washington on war matters.Kimmis Hendrick
"Every Corner a Challenge: Mary Holland Kinkaid Found Success in Newspaper Work"
''Christian Science Monitor'' (April 24, 1948): WM7. Kinkaid was an active suffragist, and (from 1897 to 1898) Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Colorado. She was a president of the Southern California Woman's Press Club, and a founding member and officer of the Colorado Women's Democratic Club. She was director of "women's publicity" for the National Democratic Committee in 1920. Books by Kinkaid include ''Walda'' (1903), ''The Man of Yesterday: A Romance of a Vanishing Race'' (1908), and her autobiography, ''The Golden Grain''.

Personal life

In 1891, Mary Holland McNeish married John Kinkaid, a state senator in Colorado. They had a son, John Holland Kinkaid, born 1894, and adopted a daughter. She died at home in

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...

in 1948, aged 86 years."Mrs. Mary H. Kinkaid"
''New York Times'' (October 21, 1948): 27.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinkaid, Mary Holland 1861 births 1948 deaths American women in World War I American women journalists American women novelists American suffragists People from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 20th-century American novelists Novelists from Pennsylvania 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 19th-century American journalists 20th-century American journalists