| Mary Rider | |
| Birth Name: | Mary Kirk Rider |
| Birth Date: | November 20, 1876 |
| Birth Place: | Pekin, Illinois, USA |
| Other Names: | Mary Rider Mechtold |
| Occupation: | Screenwriter, playwright, journalist |
| Years Active: | 1907–1923 |
| Spouse: | Reuben Maynard |
Mary Rider (sometimes credited as Mary Rider Mechtold) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and short story writer active primarily during the 1910s.[1] [2]
Mary was born in Illinois to judge George Rider and his wife, Elizabeth Prettyman, in Pekin, Illinois. Later on, she attended the Chicago University.[3]
She began to write plays[4] as well as short stories[5] during the 1910s that appeared in publications like Sunset,[6] Metropolitan,[7] and Munsey's Magazine.[8] She also wrote for vaudeville before writing stories for the screen during Hollywood's silent era.[9] One of her earliest stories to hit the screen was 1914's The Mountain Rat.[10] Over the next few years, she would go on to write a dozen or so shorts and features.
She married Reuben Maynard in New York City in 1916. The couple had no children.