Mary Louise Peebles, née Parmelee (1833–1915), was an American author of children’s stories who wrote under the name Mrs. A. Lynde Palmer.

Early life

Mary Louise Peebles was the daughter of Elias Ripley Parmelee and Eleanor Allen, descendants of early settlers of the town of Lansingburgh (now part of Troy), New York. Peebles was born at Lansingburgh on December 10, 1833 and completed her education there seventeen years later at the Lansingburgh Academy

Lansingburgh Academy

The Lansingburgh Academy was a seminary in Lansingburgh in the U.S. state of New York just north of the city of Troy from the late 18th century to 1900, when the building was leased, and later sold, to the local public school district, used initially as a high school...

. She married banker Anthony Augustus Peebles (1822–1905) on July 7, 1862, and eventually became the mother of two sons who did not survive infancy. Her aunt, Mary Eleanor Parmelee, was known for being an early love interest of the writer Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....

before she chose to marry instead a local merchant.

Writing career

Mary Louise Peebles' book ,The Little Captain, published around 1861, was the first of a number of children's stories she would author over the following twenty years or so. In 1877 she released The Magnet Stories a collection of children's yarns that included Drifting and Steering, One Day’s Weaving, Archie’s Shadow and John Jack.