Mary Benjamin Rogers, daughter of a distinguished lawyer and scientist, and wife of Henry “Harry” Huttleston Rogers Jr, Standard Oil heir, photographed in 1910.

Mark Twain’s book, Following The Equator, is dedicated to her husband:

“This Book Is Affectionately Inscribed To My Young Friend, - HARRY ROGERS - With recognition of what he is and apprehension of what he may become, unless he form himself a little more closely upon the model of - The Author”.

Mary’s father-in-law, Henry Rogers, American industrialist and financier,   became close to Twain in 1893 and soon became Twain’s chief financial adviser, taking complete control of Twain’s finances and helping him during his bankruptcy. Twain came to consider the Rogers clan his adopted family, frequently living in a cottage near the Rogers Tuxedo Park home.

In 1896 Henry Roger’s and Mark Twain took a keen interest in Helen Keller, with Rogers paying her tuition at Radcliffe as well as a monthly stipend, which she reciprocated; dedicating her 1908 book The World I Live In, “To Henry H. Rogers, my Dear Friend of Many Years.”  

Recently, the correspondence she shared with Twain, publicized in Mark Twain’s Letters to Mary, has helped shed light on his life. In 1906 he wrote to her, “What a useful creature you are, Saccharin! I can entertain myself with scribbling incoherently to you, you have to put up with it.“

Her daughter, Millicent Rogers, was an art collector, fashion icon and socialite in the 30′s and 40′s. In later life Millicent was an activist for Native American civil rights. Recently, fashion designer John Galliano credited Millicent as an influence on his Spring 2010 Dior collection.