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Indiana Authors and their books, 1816-1980.
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page: 108[View Page: 108]

FINLEY, MARTHA: 1828-1909.

Martha Finley , Nineteenth century writer of bestsellers, whose books mirror much of the conventions, moral code, and religious philosophy of her time, was born in Chillicothe, O., on Apr. 26, 1828. She was the daughter of Dr. James Brown and Maria Theresa Brown Finley, first cousins.

When she was eight years old, the family moved to South Bend, Ind., where Martha was educated in private schools and later conducted a school of her own. After the death of her father the family returned East in 1854.

She lived in New York and Philadelphia and supported herself by teaching school and writing newspaper stories and Sunday-school books, the latter published by the Presbyterian Board of Publications in Philadelphia . In her early writing she used the name of Farquharson, the original Gaelic of Finley.

During the Civil War Miss Finley, physically incapacitated by a back ailment, began the writing of the first book of her most famous series, Elsie Dinsmore, and from its publication in 1867 until four years before the author's death in 1909, the demands of her public and publishers were met with a steady output of books about Elsie or her relative, Mildred Keith. Miss Finley attempted at various times to end the series but was persuaded to continue–the result is a list of more than two dozen titles which may properly be identified as "Elsie Books" with Elsie, as lass, matron and oldster having a part in many others.

In 1876 Miss Finley moved to Elkton, Md., where she built a home and spent the remainder of her life. She died at Elkton on Jan. 30, 1909.

Miss Finley has suffered greatly in the light of present-day criticism. Much of her disrepute results from the passage of time and a changing of manners and page: 109[View Page 109] morals, as well as a shift from the romantic to the realistic school of writing. On top of that she was anything but an expert craftsman, and her lack of literary style, her poor character development and the sameness of her plots are technical faults which have all contributed to her lack of present-day regard. However, she is important for having been widely read in her day and for the influence she exerted on youthful readers of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries.

Information from The Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. VI; The University of Buffalo Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3; and the South Bend Public Library.

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