Author: Kilner, Mary Ann
Biography:
KILNER, Mary Ann (1753-1831: ODNB), formerly MAZE, pseudonym S. S.
She was born at Spital Square, London, where her father James Maze had a silk business. He and his wife Marianne de Burmann were French Huguenots and their three children grew up in a bilingual household. Mary Ann's closest friend was Dorothy Kilner (q.v.), with whom she shared games and made up stories. In 1774 she married Dorothy's brother Thomas (1750-1812) and went on to have five children. She began publishing books for children about the same time as her friend, using the pseudonym S. S. (from Spital Square). Her first, in the familiar eighteenth-century genre of the it-narrative but addressed to children, was The Adventures of a Pin-Cushion (1780?), and it was also her most popular, with 67 editions between 1780 and 2018 according to WorldCat. She wrote almost exclusively prose--improving fiction, dialogues, and lectures. Following a serious back injury in 1817 she lived as an invalid and was cared for by her daughter Frances. She died in West Ham and was buried at All Saints on 8 Dec. 1831. (ODNB 29 May 2021; OCCL; ancestry.com 29 May 2021; findmypast.com 29 May 2021; WorldCat) HJ