George Madden Martin

George Madden Martin (born Georgia May Madden, 3 May 1866 – 30 November 1946) was the pen name of Mrs. Attwood R. Martin, an American fiction writer of short stories, novels, and plays. She was also a Harlem Renaissance supporter and activist.

Early life and education

Georgia May Madden was born in Louisville, Kentucky, 3 May 1866. Her parents were Frank, a bookseller, and Anne Mckenzie Madden. Her sister, Eva Anne Madden, was also a writer.

Much of her education was conducted by private tutors. She completed her education at home because of poor health.

Career

During the period of approximately 1890 until 1892, she was a teacher at Wellseley School. In 1892, she married Attwood Reading Martin, a wealthy businessman.

Beginning in 1895, when she published "Teckla's Lilies" in Harper's Weekly, Martin was a constant writer for magazines. In addition to Harper's Weekly, her stories, all marked by humor and attention to nicety of style, appeared in The Youth's Companion, Short Stories, St. Nicholas Magazine, Munsey's Magazine, The Black Cat, Ladies' Home Journal, and other publications. She was known mostly by her pseudonym, George Madden Martin.

Being almost an invalid, Martin did much of her work in spite of bad health and physical hindrances. One book, The Angel of the Tenement, appeared in an English edition at Christmas. While intended for children, it appealed more strongly to adults. To the surprise of the author, it was chosen as a text by a New York divine, and was referred to in a lecture at Johns Hopkins University, in one case because it offered a solution of vexed social problems, and in the other because it marked a certain departure in fiction. The writer, in consequence, was referred to as a student of tenements, a social "settler," a kindergartner, even a reformer, although she knew little of cities, her life having been divided between Kentucky and Florida.