Leslie, Frank, Mrs., 1836-1914

<p>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.</p>

<p>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."</p>

<p>She divorced Ephraim Squier on May 31, 1873, to marry publisher Frank Leslie. During their honeymoon, the couple met Western poet and author Joaquin Miller. The new Mrs. Leslie and Miller began an affair and the main character in his book The One Fair Woman was modeled after her. The Leslies' summer home was in Saratoga Springs, New York, where they entertained many notables, and she was a leader in society. In 1877, they took a lavish train trip with a numerous retinue from New York City to San Francisco. She wrote her recollections of this trip in her book <i>From Gotham to the Golden Gate</i>. The expense of the trip, and a business depression left Leslie's business badly in debt.</p>

<p>When Frank Leslie died in 1880, the debts amounted to $300,000, and his will was contested. Miriam Leslie took the business in hand and put it on a paying basis, even going so far as to having her name legally changed to Frank Leslie in June 1881. She later effected a reorganization of the business, and became its president. The circulation of the Popular Monthly increased 200,000 in four months under her management.</p>

<p>While abroad in 1891, Miriam Leslie married Willie Wilde, the older brother of Oscar Wilde, but two years later was divorced from him. In 1902 she sold out all her publishing interests.</p>

<p>She died September 18, 1914. Her remains are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.</p>

<p>When Frank Leslie, founder of the Leslie Publishing House and the Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, died in January 1880, he left his wife, Miriam, with crushing debts and lawsuits. But the 44-year-old widow vowed to “take up work and redeem his reputation.” Sixteen months later, she stunned Publisher’s Row in New York by winning the lawsuits, repaying the creditors and expanding circulation of the Leslie publications from 30,000 to 200,000.</p>

<p>Miriam had long prepared for a literary life. She was born in New Orleans, probably out of wedlock, on June 5, 1836, to Susan Danforth and the twice-divorced Charles Folline. Her scholarly father tutored her in the classics as well as in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Latin and history. He insisted she spend her days studying, and Miriam later observed, “I never had any childhood, for the word means sunshine and freedom from care. I had a starved and pinched little childhood, as far as love and merriment goes.” By 1850 her parents had moved to New York City. There, just after her 14th birthday, young Miriam displayed her knowledge and linguistic skills and “dipped into ink” with an uncredited “memoir” extolling the heroism of the exiled Venezuelan patriot General José Antonio Páez in the New York Herald. It marked the beginning of Miriam’s lifelong interest in journalism.</p>

<p>As a teenager Miriam blossomed into a beauty, with bluegray eyes, a mane of strawberry-blonde hair, a Roman nose and an hourglass figure. At 17 a dalliance with David Charles Peacock, a 27-year-old jewelry clerk who lent her diamonds from the store, caused a stir when Miriam’s mother accused him of “carnal connection” with her daughter and insisted he marry her or face criminal charges. He agreed, but two years later the marriage was annulled. It was an early lesson for Miriam about young love and unrealistic expectations. She opined years later that “we have thrown a great deal of romantic drapery and pretty sentiment” around the natural impulse men and women have toward each other, “have buried it in thickets of roses and lilies…have called upon the stars to witness its loftiness and the moon to admire its purity” till it becomes “some sort of impossible creation quite unfit for this mundane sphere.”</p>