Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews (1860–1936)

Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews was born in Mobile, Alabama, a daughter of an Episcopal clergyman, and grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1884, she married William Andrews, a lawyer and future judge, with whom she had a son. She became known for writing stories on the adventures of boys engaging in hunting, camping, and fishing. Many of the stories were published in her collections Bob and the Guides (1906) and The Eternal Masculine (1913). She was also known for sentimental and melodramatic magazine fiction and some historical novels. Today she is remembered for her story "The Perfect Tribute," published in Scribner's in July 1906, which depicted President Abraham Lincoln writing and delivering the Gettysburg Address. This highly popular story was assigned reading for multiple generations of school children in the USA. It is largely responsible for the persistent myth that Lincoln hurriedly wrote the Gettysburg Address on the train on his way to Gettysburg. "The Perfect Tribute" was adapted into a 1935 short film and a 1991 television movie.