Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune

American author
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Also known as: Mary Harland, Mary Virginia
Quick Facts
Née:
Mary Virginia Hawes
Pseudonym:
Marion Harland
Born:
Dec. 21, 1830, Dennisville, Va., U.S.
Died:
June 3, 1922, New York, N.Y. (aged 91)

Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune (born Dec. 21, 1830, Dennisville, Va., U.S.—died June 3, 1922, New York, N.Y.) was an American writer who achieved great success with both her romantic novels and her books and columns of advice for homemakers. Mary Hawes grew up in her hometown of Dennisville, Virginia, and from 1844 in nearby Richmond. She was well educated by private tutors and in her father’s library. Writing under the pseudonym Marion Harland, she published her first novel, Alone (1854), privately in Richmond; two years later it appeared in a commercial edition that eventually sold more than 100,000 copies. Also ...(100 of 245 words)