Marine Leland was born on December 2, 1899 in the City of Quebec to American parents of English descent. She was educated in Montreal at the Sacred Heart Convent and in Germany, France, Spain, and the United States. After attending Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she entered Radcliffe College where she received A.B. (1923), A.M. (1925), and PhD (1928). A member of the French Department at Smith College from 1924 until her retirement in June 1965, she pioneered a new course in French Canadian civilization and is responsible for the forming and building of the French Canadian Collection in the William Allan Neilson Library at Smith. Her contributions to a better understanding of the French Canadian culture has been widely recognized and honored. On May 13, 1983, she died at her home in Northampton, Massachusetts.