Mary Louise Booth, one of the most celebrated literary women of the nineteenth century, edited Harper's Bazar from its founding on 2 November 1867 until her death in 1889. Under her meticulous guidance the magazine, subtitled "A Repository of Fashion, Pleasure and Instruction," prospered from the first as a weekly aimed at a family audience. An individual of commanding personal presence with a keen grasp of business, Booth presided over a publication that by 1880 boasted a readership of half a million drawn by both its excellent fashion illustrations and clever fiction.

A bookish child, Booth was the eldest of four children of Nancy Monsell and William Chatfield Booth. Born in Millville (later Yaphank), Long Island, New York, she moved with her family to Brooklyn when she was thirteen. She received her education in Yaphank and Brooklyn, where her father was the principal of a public school. (She later taught in his...