Foote, Mary “Molly” Hallock (1847–1938)

Mary “Molly” Hallock Foote was America's leading literary and artistic figure from the 1880s until the 1920s. Combining a gift for pen-and-ink illustration with a dedicated and disciplined literary pen, she authored 16 books, 20 short stories, 7 sketches, 16 children's stories, and numerous published illustrations. Much of her work depicts life in the American West.

Raised in a Quaker home in the East, she married Arthur Foote, a mining engineer, on February 9, 1876, and moved to the West. Already an accomplished artist, Molly boarded the Overland Limited bound for San Francisco and then the New Almaden Mine in California. New Almaden was a well-ordered company town with an ethnically diverse population. This setting provided her with material for “A California Mining Camp,” which appeared ...