Maria Thompson Daviess was an American artist and female writer who was born November 28, 1872, and died September 3, 1924. She is best known for her "Pollyanna"-style books that came out in the early 1900s. She also wrote a number of short stories, such as "Some Juniors," "Miss Selina Sue and the Soap-Box Babies," and "Sue Saunders of Saunders Ridge." Daviess was a member of the Equal Suffrage League in Kentucky. He helped to start and run the chapter in Nashville and was a coordinator for the chapter in Madison. Maria (or "Marie") Thompson Daviess was born on November 28, 1872, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. John Burton Thompson Daviess, who was related to the writer Zoe Anderson Norris and was born in Harrodsburg, was her father, and Leonora Hamilton Daviess was her mother. When she was eight years old, her father, John B. T. Daviess, died, and the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Maria Thompson Daviess was the name of her paternal grandma. She wrote columns and gave talks. Daviess went to Wellesley College for one year and then went to Paris to study art. When she got back to Nashville, she kept painting and started writing. Miss Selina Lue and the Soap-Box Babies, her first book, came out in 1909. When it came out in 1912, The Melting of Molly was one of the most popular stories that year.
