Cummins, MARIA SUSANNA, American novelist, born at Salem, Massachusetts, April 9, 1827, began to write in 1850, contributing presently to the Atlantic Monthly and other magazines. Her first novel, The Lamplighter (1854), had a phenomenal sale, 40,000 copies being sold in two months; its entire sale in America alone has exceeded 120,000 copies. Her other books include Mabel Vaughan (1857), El Furcidis (1860), and Haunted Hearts (1864). She died at Dorchester, October 1, 1866.
Cummins, MARIA SUSANNA
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 614
Source scan(s): p. 0625