Mary Wilder (Foote) Tileston (1843–1934) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. Her parents were Caleb Foote, the owner and editor of the Salem Gazette, and his wife, Mary Wilder (White) Foote. The Footes had six children, three of whom died in infancy. In addition to Mary, two brothers lived to see adulthood: the Rev. Henry Wilder Foote, a graduate of Harvard Theological Seminary, who officiated at his sister’s wedding; and American classical composer Arthur William Foote, a founding member of the American Guild of Organists. Mary attended private school in Salem. In February 1865, at age twenty-one, she became engaged to John Boies Tileston. The two wed that September at her father’s house. John worked first as an editor with his father, Edmund Pitt Tileston, at Swan, Brewer, and Tileston, which published school books and The Old Farmer’s Almanac, and later at the paper manufacturing firm of Tileston and Hollingsworth. John was in poor health for much of his adult life and left Mary for months at a time while he traveled—either to regain his strength in the outdoors, to promote and sell school books, or to seek some profession that would cure what he described as "fits of despondency." He tried his hand at writing for an encyclopedia, banking, and even farming, but nothing seemed to suit him. After John left her yet again in February 1884 to study teaching methods in Germany, Mary wrote, "I was busy through the winter and spring, working on Daily Strength for Daily Needs, most of the material for which I had been collecting for many years." The book was first published that autumn. Mary and John had seven children—five daughters and two sons. In addition to a variety of inspirational works, Mary compiled several books containing letters and memoirs of her parents, her husband, and two daughters who proceeded her in death.
