One of Randolph's most illustrious residents was the prolific author Mary Wilkins, later Mary Wilkins Freeman. Born in Randolph on October 31, 1852. She lived in town until her father's business attempts floundered. As a young girl she moved with him to Brattleboro, Vermont, and spent a few years there, which time she recalled fondly. Again her father's business failed and she moved back to Randolph by the 1880's and lived for a while with a friend Mary Wales. After her 1902 marriage to Dr. Freeman she resided until her death in 1930, in Metuchen, New Jersey..

She is often considered an early feminist writer, placed in the same category as writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sarah Orne Jewett. Sometimes her work had been considered too provincial to New England, but new scholars are finding that her characters are more universal and timeless. Samuel Clemens (nom de plume Mark Twain) was an avid supporter and was directly so quoted. Her relationship to her Randolph neighbors was sometimes strained as they saw themselves all too clearly and none too favorably in her characterizations.

Among the best known of her works are the The Revolt of Mother which has been dramatized and was broadcast on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) a few years ago. Her novels Pembroke and A Humble Romance also received critical acclaim. She wrote numerous short stories many of which first appeared in magazines before being collected into anthologies. You can read her short story The Last Gift online, it clearly reflects her New England and especially her Randolph roots, though the place names appear fictional the description of the roads and the stone walls beside them are germane even to the present. And the principal of the story is described as having been a shoe worker, a description that would have fitted 9 out of every 10 men in Randolph in the late 1800's. Indeed, it is likely that the character is not entirely fictional and is probably based upon someone that she knew.

Nota Bene: Many of the following pages are lengthy, use the Find option of your browser to search for "Freeman" to locate the precise reference.

The Last Gift by Mary Wilkins Freeman, A short story available on-line, courtesy of the Electronic Text Center - Univ. of Viriginia.

Beneath the Elms, pgs. 60 - 61
Click on thumbnail for larger view.

Legacy A Journal of Amerian Women Writers Dwyer, Patricia M. "Diffusing Boundaries: A Study of Narrative Strategies in Mary Wilkins Freeman's 'The Revolt of Mother.'" 10.2 (1993): 120-27.

"Subdued Meaning in 'A New England Nun,'"by David H. Hirsch, Professor Emeritus English and American Literature and Judiac Studies, Brown, rpt., in G.K. Hall collection of Critical Essays on Mary Wilkins Freeman, ed. Shirley Marchalonis, pp. 106-117. Boston, MA, 1991.

PLA/ALA Top Titles for Adult New Readers

USIA - Outline of American Literature - Chapter 5

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

The Buffalo Americanist Digest

A Web of Relationship : Women in the Short Stories of Mary Wilkins Freeman and other books by Mary R. Reichardt.

The Web (Young People's Radio Theatre): Masterpieces of Nineteenth-Century American Literature -- Part 1 - Radio Series (Drama and Documentary)

Hamlin Garland Presented the Howells Medal for Distinction in Fiction to Mary Wilkins Freeman.

LEGACY: Photo Gallery

1994 Edition of stories from DWpress, Rome including Mamma si ribella (The Revolt of Mother) in Italian

Library Catalog, Norway

More stories by Mary Wilkins Freeman:
A Gentle Ghost

The Hall Bedroom

A Symphony in Lavender

A Far-Away Melody

The Lost Ghost

The Vacant Lot

The Southwest Chamber

Luella Miller

The Shadows on the Wall

The Wind in the Rose-bush (1902, 1927 ed)

The Revolt of Sophia Lane

Humble Pie

Emancipation

A Guest in Sodom