Mary Cooper (d. August 5, 1761[1]) was an English publisher and bookseller based in London who flourished between 1743 and 1761.
[2] With Thomas Boreman, she is the earliest publisher of children's books in English, predating John Newbery.
[1] She was the widow of printer and publisher Thomas Cooper,[2] whose business she continued.
[4] Active from 1743 to 1761,[2] she is notable especially for publishing Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744), "the first known collection of English nursery rhymes in print".
[5] With her husband, she was a trade publisher, meaning she did not own the copyright to works they published, meaning also that the actual copyright owner could remain anonymous, a benefit when the book was controversial—one of the Coopers' books was the (anonymously printed) erotic novel A Secret History of Pandora's Box (1742).