In Europe, the mother also urged a resumption of daily work with writing and encouraged the growth of imagination and fancy.

[3] She made her debut as piano soloist at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in 1889, and her U.S. début with the Brooklyn Philharmonic orchestra of Theodore Thomas in New York City on January 11, 1891.

[5] After her musical career ended, she began to write, also encouraged by her mother who instilled this passion in Jones at an early age.

It is the story of a young girl who abandons her child to the care of a convent; after gaining fame and notoriety, the mother has a spiritual transformation and reconnects with her son.

[1] Thanks to her works, Wagnalls became a close friend of William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, as well as knowing many other writers, musicians and performers of the time, such as Harry Houdini and Edwin Markham.

[10] In 1920, Mabel Wagnalls married Richard J. Jones (died 1929), professor emeritus of law at Yale University.