Marietta Holley (1836-1926) wrote humorous novels of the satirically insightful Samantha Allen and her foolish husband. Excerpt: "Twilight on the broad ocean! Smooth, wild waste of blue-gray waters stretchin’ out as fur as the eye could reach on every side. In the east a silvery moon hangin’ low and a shinin’ path leadin’ up to it. In the west Mars a-dazzlin’ bright over a pale pink sky, with streaks of yeller and crimson a-layin’ stretched acrost it, like bars put up by angel hands a-fencin’ in their world from ourn."
Marietta Holley (pen names, Jemyma, later, Josiah Allen's Wife; July 16, 1836 – March 1, 1926), was an American humorist who used satire to comment on U.S. society and politics. Holley enjoyed a prolific writing career and was a bestselling author in the late 19th century, though she was largely forgotten by the time of her death. Her writing was frequently compared to that of Mark Twain and Edgar Nye. Along with Frances Miriam Whitcher and Ann S. Stephens, Holley is remembered as one of America's most significant early female humorists. Holley's work appealed to all classes of society. Her readers are scattered over the entire world and include men and women of every station and grade. Her books are widely read in Europe.