Maud Wilder Goodwin (June 5, 1856 – February 5, 1935) was an American writer of historical fiction, biographies, and popular histories.
Early life
Maud Wilder was born in Ballston Spa, New York, the daughter of John N. Wilder and Delia A. Wilder. Her older sister Blanche, also a writer, married lawyer Frederick P. Bellamy, the brother of writer Edward Bellamy.
Publications
Goodwin's books were commercially successful, and generally well-reviewed by critics. The Literary World found The Colonial Cavalier "very gay and charming," and Dolly Madison a "delightfully written, carefully gleaned biography". Public Opinion found White Aprons to be "animated with fresh and absorbing interest." "There is nothing specially startling in her plot of her situations," noted The Richmond Times-Dispatch about Richmond's novel, Four Roads to Paradise. "But she has endowed her characters with life and the ability to enjoy it; she has infused a strong dramatic element into her scenes; she has described her surroundings well, and she has given zest and animation to her conversations and dialogues."
"The Antislavery Legacy" (1893)
The Colonial Cavalier, or, Southern Life Before the Revolution (1895)
Dolly Madison (1896)
White Aprons: A Romance of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia (1896, illustrated by Clyde O. DeLand)
The Head of a Hundred: Being an Account of Certain Passages in the Life of Humphrey Huntoon, Esq., Sometime an Officer in the Colony of Virginia (1897)
Fort Amsterdam (1897)
Flint: His Faults, His Friendships And His Fortunes (1897)
