Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (October 31, 1852 – March 13, 1930) was an American author. She was born on Halloween, and fulfilled that implicit promise by writing weird tales in addition to her more conventional prose.
She came of the Wilkinses: strict Congregationalists in Randolph, Massachusetts, where she lived until her family moved to Brattleboro, Vermont in 1867. She graduated from high school, then studied at college at Mount Holyoke in South Hadley, MA and Glenwood Seminary in West Brattleboro, VT.
In 1873 her father's dry goods business failed, and the family returned to Randolph, MA. In 1876, her mother died, and Mary changed her middle name to "Eleanor" in her memory. In 1883 her father died, leaving her an estate worth but $793.
Mary moved in with her friend Mary J. Wales, and embarked on a career in professional writing. Her collection The Wind in the Rose-Bush, and particularly the story "The Shadows on the Wall," were singled out for praise in Lovecraft's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature."
