Introduction

Biography

Mary was the daugh­ter of An­drew Les­lie, a Scots­man who was for ma­ny years a Ba­ptist mis­sion­ary in Cal­cut­ta.

She be­came a mem­ber of her fa­ther’s church, and hav­ing re­ceived a su­per­i­or edu­ca­tion, was for eight years Su­per­in­tend­ent of an in­sti­tu­tion for the edu­ca­tion of young Hin­du la­dies.

Starting in 1877, she was en­gaged in va­ri­ous kinds of phil­an­thro­pic work in Cal­cut­ta. She was fa­mil­iar with ma­ny lang­uag­es, in­clud­ing Greek, Ital­i­an and Ger­man, and is said to have like­ly spok­en Bang­la and Ur­du.

Works

• Ina and Oth­er Po­ems, 1852
• Sorrows and As­pi­ra­tions (Lon­don: John Snow, 1858)
• Heart Ech­oes from the East; or Sac­red Lyr­ics and Son­nets (Lon­don: Nis­bet, 1861)
• The Dawn of Light: A Story for Hin­doo Wo­men, 1867
• Eastern Blos­soms: A Sto­ry for Na­tive Chri­stian Wo­men (Lon­don: John Snow, 1875)
• A Child of the Day: A Brief Me­mo­ri­al of Mrs. H. C. Mu­ker­ji (Cal­cut­ta: 1882)