Born in New York, Mary Bleecker spent her youth in West Chester County; this "rural" environment influenced much of her early poetry, which was published in The New York Mirror. After her marriage in 1834, she continued to write under the pen-name of "M.N.M." Perhaps nothing is more reflective of the "aesthetics" determining inclusion in some nineteenth-century anthologies than Caroline May's assertion that Bleecker McDonald's happy married life was "a sure sign that ambition had left her; because, if a thirst for fame and yearning for love live together in a woman's heart, they will kindle strife" (371). After the death in 1844 of Pierre McDonald, Mary published Poems by M. N. M. (1845), and two collections of stories for juveniles.
--Sharon M. Harris