Leslie, Frank, Mrs., 1836-1914

Miriam Florence Squier Leslie (also, Miriam Peacock and Miriam Wilde; June 5, 1836 – September 18, 1914) was an American publisher and author. She was the wife of Frank Leslie and the heir to his publishing business which she developed into a paying concern from a state of precarious indebtedness. After her husband's death, she changed her own name to his, Frank Leslie. The Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission was an organization formed by Carrie Chapman Catt using funds willed for the purpose by Leslie.

Miriam Florence Folline was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, June 5, 1836. She described her own childhood as "starved and pinched" as far as "love and merriment go." Leslie was the descendant of a noble Huguenot family. After a trip to France, in 1901, she claimed the title Baroness de Bazus. She apparently grew up in New York City, and was well educated in the French, Spanish and Italian languages. She was married four times. Her first marriage, March 25, 1854, was to David Charles Peacock. That marriage was annulled two years later, and she married her second husband, the anthropologist Ephraim Squier. When the editor of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine had fallen ill, probably in the late 1860s, she volunteered to fill in while the ill editor still received the salary. The editor died, and she took on the position permanently, the November 18, 1871, issue of the magazine appearing with the notation "conducted by Miriam F. Squier."

...