SOURCE: “Mary Wilkins Freeman,” in Our Short Story Writers, Moffat, Yard & Company, 1920, pp. 160–81.

In the following excerpt, Williams discusses Freeman's characters, particularly the female ones, from a variety of her short stories.

Many years have gone by since a writer in Harper's Weekly stated, “It seems a supererogation to say aught in praise of her work now, but we are apt to take our literary benefactors so much for granted that we fail to realize their greatness, and fall short of that lively sense of appreciation which we accord the fresh and unaccustomed writer new to his laurels. Since A Humble Romance was written, other authors have come and gone, some have stayed, and will stay with honorable excellence, but to none do we owe so much during these years for that distinction and honor which upholds our literary ideals as to the name of Mary Wilkins Freeman...