Jessie White Mario made her literary debut in
Eliza Cook's Journal, but it was her involvement in the Italian Risorgimento (sometimes as a spy) that fostered her career as a journalist, translator, propagandist, lecturer, and biographer. Her service as a field nurse during
Garibaldi's various campaigns informed her war correspondence printed in English and American periodicals. From 1866 until her death in 1906, she wrote one hundred and forty-three articles on Italian life and politics for the
Nation. She also penned important biographies of many Italian figures, including Garibaldi and
Mazzini.
Milestones
31 May 1851-28 June 1851 Jessie White (later JWM) was the probable author of an anonymous, serialized story, "Lilly Crossland", apparently one of her many contributions to
Eliza Cook's Journal.
15 February 1906 JWM finished her last article for the
Nation, "The New Italian Ministry", which was published on 8 March, in the week of her death.
5 March 1906 JWM died at
Florence in her mid seventies.
