Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood

Sarah Sayward Barrell Keating Wood (October 1, 1759 – January 6, 1855) is considered the first American female writer of gothic fiction. She lived more than nine decades, authored four novels and one collection of tales, and was renowned as Maine's first novelist.

Wood was an author of gothic novels who wrote under the pen name "A Lady of Massachusetts". After Maine became a state in 1820, she changed her pen name to "A Lady of Maine." To her readers, however, she was better known as Madame Wood.

Life Wood was born in York, Maine, the first daughter of Sarah Sayward Barrell and the British army officer Nathaniel Barrell, but was heavily influenced by her wealthy grandfather, Judge Jonathan Sayward. He died in 1811, and Wood thereafter moved to Portland, Maine.

Career Wood's published works include: Julia and the Illuminated Baron (1800); Dorval; or The Speculator (1801); Amelia; or The Influence of Virtue (1802); Ferdinand and Elmira: A Russian Story (1804); and Tales of the Night (1827). A facsimile edition of Tales of the Night was published in 1982 as part of the sesquicentennial observances of Westbrook College. Wood's writing career falls into two distinct phases, both of which occurred during her periods of widowhood. This fact, and the prefaces to her books, suggests she felt a certain ambivalence about female authorship. Her books were published anonymously, and according to the University of New England's Maine Women Writers Collection, "she makes it perfectly clear that her womanly duties were never neglected."

Wood, desiring anonymity, wrote and published under pseudonyms. On the title pages of her first four books, she was identified as either "A Lady" or "A Lady from Massachusetts." Since her last book was published after Maine became a state in 1820, she was identified as "A Lady from Maine" on its title page.