Julia McNair Wright


Julia McNair Wright was a popular American domestic writer. She published numerous temperance and anti-Catholic stories, among which were Almost a Nun; Priest and Nun; The Gospel in the Riviera; The Heir of Athole, Scenes of the Convent; A Wife Hard Won; A Million Too Much; The Complete Home; Bricks from Babel; as well as scientific stories entitled, The Sun and His Family; The Story of Plant Life; The Nature Readers, Seaside and Wayside. She was the main author of Ladies' Home Cook Book: A Complete Cook Book and Manual of Household Duties... Compiled by Julia Mac Nair Wright, et al..

Early years and education

Julia McNair was born in Oswego, New York, May 1, 1840. She was the daughter of John McNair, a civil engineer of Scotch descent. She was carefully educated in private schools and seminaries.

Career

In 1859, she married Rev. Dr. William James Wright, the mathematician. She began her literary career at age sixteen by the publication of short stories. Her published works include Almost a Nun ; Priest and Nun ; Jug-or-Not ; Saints and Sinners ; The Early Church in Britain ; Bricks from Babel, a manual of ethnography ; The Complete Home ; A Wife Hard Won, a novel, and The Nature Readers, four volumes. Her works were very popular. Most of her stories were republished in Europe, in various languages, and several of them appeared in Arabic. Wright never had a book that was a financial failure; all did well. The Complete Home sold over 100,000 copies, and others reached ten, twenty, thirty and fifty thousand. Since the organization of the National Temperance Society, she was one of its most earnest workers and most popular authors. She wrote on historical, nature, ethnographical, theological, and biblical subjects.

Personal life

She had two children, both married. Her son was a distinguished young business man; her daughter, Mrs. J. Wright Whitcomb, a member of the Kansas bar, was an author.
She died September 2, 1903 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or Fulton, Missouri.

Selected works

*