Mary Platt Parmele

Mary Platt Parmele (July 14, 1843 – May 26, 1911) was an American historian and writer.

Mary Platt Parmele
Born	Mary Platt July 14, 1843 Albany, New York, U.S.
Died	May 26, 1911 (age 67) New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Father	Zephaniah Platt
Relatives	Jonas Platt (grandfather)

Early life

Parmele was born in Albany, New York and educated in New York. She was the daughter of Zephaniah Platt and Cornelia Jenkins Platt.^[1] Her father was the Michigan Attorney General, and her grandfather was U.S. Representative Jonas Platt.

Career

From 1892 Parmele contributed philosophical articles and short stories to reviews and magazines. Her most successful books were a number of "Short History" books of various countries written in the late 19th and early 20th century.^[2] Her "Short History of ..." books included volumes on France, Russia, England, United States, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Her style was appreciated by critics as readable, lively, and comprehensive.^[3]

Parmele ventured beyond straight historical writing with Ariel, or the Author's World (1892), in which a character has the power to transport himself to a planet orbiting Earth, "created by atoms obeying the wills of writers", thus inhabited by fictional creations such as Frankenstein's monster.^[4][5] Parmele was critical of the claims of Christian Science. In 1904, she published a book that argued against the claims of Christian Science.^[6][7]

Publications

• Answered in the Negative (1892, two stories)^[5]
• The Evolution of an Empire: A Brief Historical Sketch of France (1894)^[8]
• A Short History of England (1898)^[9]
• A Short History of France (1898)^[10]
• A Short History of Germany (1898)^[11]
• A Short History of Spain (1898)^[12]
• A Short History of the United States (1898)^[13]
• Ariel, or the Author's World (1898, chapbook)
• The Kingdom of the Invisible (1902)^[14]
• Christian Science: Is it Christian? Is it Scientific? (1904)^[15]
• A Short History of England, Ireland, and Scotland (1907)^[16]
• A Short History of Rome and Italy (1907)^[17]
• A Short History of Russia (1907)^[18]

Personal life

Mary Platt married twice. Her first marriage was to Samuel J. Agnew; they had two sons, Howard and Holmes,^[19] and divorced. In 1870, she married her cousin,^[19] widower Theodore Weld Parmele; he died in 1893.^[1][20] She lived with Mrs. J. J. Tierney in her last years, and died when she was struck by a motorcycle in 1911, at the age of 67, in New York City.^[21][22] Her son Holmes Agnew was institutionalized at the time of her death.^[23] Her grave is in Brooklyn's historic Green-Wood Cemetery.

References

1. Leonard, John William (1905). Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. p. 690.
2. "Mrs. Mary Platt Parmele; How She Cleverly Averted Embarrassment on the Part of her Guest Professor X". Kansas City Journal. 1901-09-17. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-07-12 – via Newspapers.com.
3. "New Books and Magazines". Omaha Daily Bee. 1904-03-25. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-07-12 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "SFE: Parmele, Mary Platt". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
5. Bleiler, Everett Franklin (1990). Science-fiction, the Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-fiction Stories from Earliest Times to the Appearance of the Genre Magazines in 1930 : with Author, Title, and Motif Indexes. Kent State University Press. p. 586. ISBN 978-0-87338-416-2.
6. Anonymous. (1904). "New Books and Editions – Religion", Book News: An Illustrated Magazine Vol. 23, No. 267; p. 244.
7. Fairchild, H. Coulson (1904-09-28). "Christian Science Defended; Official Reply to Mrs. Mary Platt Parmele's Book". Passaic Daily Herald. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-07-12 – via Newspapers.com.
8. Parmele, Mary Platt (1894). The evolution of an empire. A brief historical sketch of France. The Library of Congress. New York, W.B. Harrison.
9. Parmele, Mary Platt (1898). A short history of England. The Library of Congress. New York, C. Scribner's Sons.
10. Parmele, Mary Platt (1907). A short history of France. University of California Libraries. N. Y. : Scribner.
11. Parmele, Mary Platt (1898). A short history of Germany. New York: C. Scribner's sons.
12. Parmele, Mary Platt (1907). A short history of Spain. University of California Libraries. New York : C. Scribner's sons.
13. Parmele, Mary Platt (1898). A short history of the United States. The Library of Congress. New York, C Scribner's sons.
14. Parmele, Mary Platt (1902). The kingdom of the invisible. The Library of Congress. New York, Irving press.
15. Parmele, Mary Platt (1904). Christian science; is it Christian? Is it scientific. New York: J.F. Taylor & company.
16. Parmele, Mary Platt (1907). A short history of England, Ireland, And Scotland. University of California Libraries. New York : C. Scribner's Sons.
17. Parmele, Mary Platt (1907). A short history of Rome and Italy. University of California Libraries. New York : C. Scribner's Sons.
18. Parmele, Mary Platt (1907). A short history of Russia;. University of California Libraries. New York : C. Scribner's sons.
19. Platt, George Lewis (1891). The Platt lineage; a genealogical research and record. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. New York, T. Whittaker. p. 123.
20. "Obituary: Col. Theodore Weld Parmele". The New York Times. 1893-05-15. p. 5. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
21. "Wheel Kills Woman Author". Chicago Tribune. 1911-05-27. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-07-12 – via Newspapers.com.
22. "Motor Cycle Kills Mrs. Mary Parmele; Aged Woman Writer, Weak from Illness, Walked Into Its Path in Sixth Avenue". The New York Times. May 27, 1911. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
23. "None to Claim Her Estate; Mrs. M. P. Parmele's Personalty Devised to Inebriate Son". New-York Tribune. 1911-06-27. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-07-12 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Works by Mary Platt Parmele at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Mary Platt Parmele at the Internet Archive
• Works by Mary Platt Parmele at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Mary Platt Parmele at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database