Born near Pierrepont Manor, New York, on July 16, 1836, Marietta Holley attended district school until she was fourteen. She studied and then taught piano and from an early age wrote verses for her own amusement. A few were printed in local newspapers, and in April 1867 one appeared in the nationally circulated Peterson╒s Magazine. In the same magazine in July 1871 appeared the first of her humorous dialect sketches featuring the commonsensical ╥Samantha Allen╙ and the sentimental caricature ╥Betsy Bobbet.╙ The sketch was signed ╥Josiah Allen╒s Wife,╙ which soon became as familiar a pseudonym as Artemus Ward, Josh Billings, or Major Jack Downing.
In 1873 Holley╒s first book appeared as My Opinions and Betsy Bobbet╒s. Some 20 similar volumes followed, including Samantha at the Centennial, 1876, My Wayward Pardner, 1880, Miss Richard╒s Boy, 1882, Sweet Cicely, or Josiah Allen as a Politician, 1885, Samantha at Saratoga, 1887, Samantha Among the Brethren, 1890, Samantha on the Race Problem, 1892, Samantha at the World╒s Fair, 1893, Josiah╒s Alarm, 1893, Samantha in Europe, 1895, Round the World with Josiah Allen╒s Wife, 1899, The Borrowed Automobile, 1906, Samantha on Children╒s Rights, 1909, Who Was to Blame, 1910, and Josiah Allen on the Woman Question, 1914.
Written in the tradition of droll Yankee humor, the books were highly popular at home and abroad, not least because of their successful portrayal of Samantha, a strong advocate of women╒s rights, as the plainspoken voice of sanity opposed to the hysterical and conventional views of Betsy and Josiah. Despite her views and the urgings of Frances Willard and Susan B. Anthony, Marietta Holley took no part in organized action for women╒s rights, temperance, or other reforms. She also published a few other volumes, such as Miss Jones╒ Quilting, 1887, Tirzah Ann╒s Summer Trip, 1892, and The Widder Doodle╒s Love Affair, 1893. She died at her ancestral farm near Pierrepont Manor, New York, on March 1, 1926.
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