Lilian McNamara was born in 1872 in Cleveland, Ohio. and Winifred. By 1880, the family lived in
Belleville, New Jersey the setting of her first book . The
Newark Evening News reported that she'd submitted a poem "when a schoolgirl" and "a request to call at the office resulted in her being taken on by the local staff of which she was the youngest member." Lilian attended private schools including Dunkirk Union School. In 1893 her poem "Peace" was featured in the
New Jersey Scrapbook of Women Writers created for the
World's Columbian Exposition. At this point she used an alternate name "Lillian Mack" and lives in Newark. Lillian was also a suffragette. Lilian met Howard Garis at the
Newark Evening News and the couple married in 1900. In 1951, they moved from
East Orange, New Jersey to
Amherst, Massachusetts. For the
Stratemeyer Syndicate Garis wrote under the pseudonym
Margaret Penrose and
Laura Lee Hope, with her works including some of the earliest books in the
Bobbsey Twins series as well as the
Dorothy Dale series. But Mrs. Garis also wrote some books under her own name. Lilian died April 19, 1954. == Bibliography of titles written under Garis' name ==