| Julia McNair Wright | |
| Birth Name: | Julia McNair |
| Birth Date: | May 1, 1840 |
| Birth Place: | Oswego, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (or Fulton, Missouri), U.S. |
| Occupation: | author |
| Language: | English |
| Nationality: | American |
Julia McNair Wright (McNair; May 1, 1840 – September 2, 1903) was a popular 19th-century American domestic writer. She published numerous temperance and anti-Catholic stories, among which were Almost a Nun; Priest and Nun; The Gospel in the Riviera; The Heir of Athole, Scenes of the Convent; A Wife Hard Won; A Million Too Much; The Complete Home; Bricks from Babel; as well as scientific stories entitled, The Sun and His Family; The Story of Plant Life; The Nature Readers, Seaside and Wayside. She was the main author of Ladies' Home Cook Book: A Complete Cook Book and Manual of Household Duties... Compiled by Julia Mac Nair Wright, et al. (532 pages). Wright died in 1903.
Julia McNair was born in Oswego, New York, May 1, 1840. She was the daughter of John McNair, a civil engineer of Scotch descent. She was carefully educated in private schools and seminaries.
In 1859, she married Rev. Dr. William James Wright, the mathematician. She began her literary career at age sixteen by the publication of short stories. Her published works include Almost a Nun (1867); Priest and Nun (1869); Jug-or-Not (1870); Saints and Sinners (1873); The Early Church in Britain (1874); Bricks from Babel, a manual of ethnography (1876); The Complete Home (1879); A Wife Hard Won, a novel (1882).
Julia McNair Wright's The Field Of Fortune or Practical Life is a 626 page tutorial on the value of Common Sense in all of life's pursuits. The volume's themes are presented by a newcomer visiting the general store/post office in Arcadia, a fictional American town. 'The Stranger' expounds on the value of dedication, hard work and familial love, addressing small groups of the town's elders as well as the young folk, with questions asked, answers offered, and comments/retorts welcomed and discussed.
She also produced The Nature Readers, four volumes (1887–91). Her works were very popular. Most of her stories were republished in Europe, in various languages, and several of them appeared in Arabic. Wright never had a book that was a financial failure; all did well. The Complete Home sold over 100,000 copies, and others reached ten, twenty, thirty and fifty thousand. Since the organization of the National Temperance Society, she was one of its most earnest workers and most popular authors. She wrote on historical, nature, ethnographical, theological, and biblical subjects.
She had two children. Her son was a businessman; her daughter, Mrs. J. Wright Whitcomb, a member of the Kansas bar, was an author.
Julia McNair Wright died September 2, 1903, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or Fulton, Missouri.
Book: Fletcher. William Isaac. Bowker. Richard Rogers. The Annual Literary Index. 1904. Office of the Publishers' Weekly.