Publisher's Synopsis
Maria Thompson Daviess (1872-1924) was an American artist and author. She was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to an upper-middle-class family. Before she was eight years old both her sister and her father died and her mother moved the family to Nashville. Beginning as an artist she eventually developed an interest in literature and soon focused almost exclusively on writing. She wrote thirteen novels and an autobiography during her fifteen-year career. Her most famous novel, Miss Selma Lue (1909), typifies her style of what some have called 'excessive optimism'. As Daviess wrote her novels, she usually adapted them for the stage. Her novel, Phyllis (1914) played in Boston and was even optioned for a film, although it was never actually produced. She was a strong proponent of women's suffrage and this was often reflected in her works. Her autobiography, Seven Times Seven (1923) was written while she was suffering from severe articular rheumatism which eventually claimed her life.
