Mary Holland Kinkaid ( McNeish; December 31, 1861 — October 20, 1948) was an American novelist and journalist.
Early life Mary Holland McNeish was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,"Mary Holland Kinkaid" Book News Monthly (May 1903): 692. the daughter of John McNeish and Nettie Simpson McNeish.John W. Leonard, ed., Woman's Who's Who of America (American Commonwealth Company 1914): 459.
Career Kinkaid worked in newspapers and magazines for about fifty years, in various capacities. She was a cartoonist at the Chicago Daily News, associate editor at The Delineator (alongside editor Theodore Dreiser), assistant city editor of the Denver Times and city editor of the Los Angeles Herald, among many other positions. She was also a syndicated columnist. During World War I, she was editor at the Women's Division of Public Information under Clara Sears Taylor, publishing from Washington on war matters.Kimmis Hendrick, "Every Corner a Challenge: Mary Holland Kinkaid Found Success in Newspaper Work" Christian Science Monitor (April 24, 1948): WM7.
Kinkaid was an active suffragist, and (from 1897 to 1898) Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Colorado."New Deputy State Superintendent" Colorado School Journal (September 1898): 66. She was a president of the Southern California Woman's Press Club,California Federation of Women's Clubs, Club Women of California (1907 directory): 153."Press Club Will Honor Presidents" Los Angeles Times (November 29, 1931): 20. and a founding member and officer of the Colorado Women's Democratic Club.Wilbur Fiske Stone, ed., History of Colorado (S. J. Clarke 1918): 695-696. She was director of "women's publicity" for the National Democratic Committee in 1920."Director of Publicity for Democratic Women" New Bern Sun Journal (July 17, 1920): 1. via Newspapers.com
Books by Kinkaid include Walda (1903),Mary Holland Kinkaid, Walda: A Novel (Harper & Brothers 1903). The Man of Yesterday: A Romance of a Vanishing Race (1908),Mary Holland Kinkaid, The Man of Yesterday: A Romance of a Vanishing Race (Frederick A. Stokes Company 1908). and her autobiography, The Golden Grain."Woman Journalist, 86, Dies of Heart Ailment" Los Angeles Times (October 21, 1948): A8.
Personal life In 1891, Mary Holland McNeish married John Kinkaid, a state senator in Colorado. They had a son, John Holland Kinkaid, born 1894, and adopted a daughter. She died at home in Laguna Beach, California in 1948, aged 86 years."Mrs. Mary H. Kinkaid" New York Times (October 21, 1948): 27.
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