Mary Huestis Pengilly (1823 - 1893)

Mary Huestis Pengilly was a Canadian author and patient in New Brunswick’s Provincial Lunatic Asylum. She kept a secret diary, which she tucked in her mattress to hide. Upon her release Mary met with the Solicitor-General, the Governor, and the Board of Commissioners to press for better conditions at the asylum. She published her diary twelve months later. She spent the remaining nine years of her life as a traveling poet, selling verse said to be inspired by angels alongside copies of her diary.