Mary Sinton (Lewis) Leitch was born 8 September 1876 in New York City, the daughter of Carlton Thomas and Nancy Dunlap (McKeen) Lewis. She received her early education in private prepatory schools and then attended Smith College, Columbia University and schools in France and Germany.
In New York, she served as an inspector of women's prisons and later became a contributing editor to Harper's Monthly, the New York Herald, and the New York Evening Post. On leaving these positions, she began a world tour on sailing ships and tramp steamers in order to gain insight into native languages and customs.
She married John David Leitch on 17 October 1907 and settled in Lynnhaven, Virginia. She became one of the founding members of the Poetry Society of Virginia, served as its president in 1933 and its co- President in 1944-1945. In 1932, Mrs. Leitch edited the highly praised Lyric Virginia Today (vol. 1). She spent the remainder of her life at "Wycherly" in Lynnhaven, Virginia. Mrs. Leitch died 20 August 1954.
Leitch's works include The Wagon and the Star (1922), The Unrisen Morrow (1926), The Black Moon (1929), Spider Architect (1937), From Invisible Mountains (1943), Himself and I (1950), and Nightingales on the Moon (1952).
From the guide to the Mary Sinton Leitch Papers, 1929-1954, (Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University)
