Born in Millville (later Yaphank), Long Island, New York, Mary Booth was an exceptional reader with a remarkable aptitude in French. She reputedly read the Bible at age five and at seven read the works of Jean Racine in the original. She moved at eighteen to Manhattan and found work as a vest maker, writing articles for literary and educational journals at night. The New York Times soon hired her to cover education and women on a piece-rate basis. Starting in 1856 she translated books from French into English, especially abolitionist tracts; eventually she would translate nearly forty volumes. In 1859 she wrote the first complete History of the City of New York from its Dutch settlement to its role as a financial capital.

Harper's Bazar.

In 1867 publisher Fletcher Harper decided to start Harper's Bazar, a new periodical to act as a family-oriented counterpart to his...