Miriam Leslie

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Miriam Leslie (1828-1914), Baroness de Bazus Mrs. Frank Leslie, was an American publisher and author, born in New Orleans.

Her maiden name was Miriam Florence Folline and she was a descendant of a noble Huguenot family, from which she took her title late in life. When Frank Leslie, the publisher, to whom she had been married, died in 1880, leaving his business badly involved, she took it in hand and put it on a paying basis.

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. In 1902 she sold out all her publishing interests. While abroad in 1891, Mrs. Leslie married William Wilde, a brother of Oscar Wilde, but two years later was divorced from him. She was also supposed to have been married several times before meeting Mr. Leslie.

By her will she made Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt residuary legatee, in the expectation that most of her fortune would be devoted to woman suffrage. Relatives contested the will.

She was the author of:

• From Gotham to the Golden Gate (1877)
• Rents in our Robes (1888)
• Are Men Gay Deceivers? and Other Sketches (1893)
• A Social Mirage (1899)

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.