A. Frances (Abby Frances) Friebe

Abby Frances Friebe, who also published as A. Frances Friebe, was born in 1861. The main work currently documented under her name is The Nomad of the Nine Lives, published in Boston by Sherman, French & Co. in 1913, with illustrations by Clara R. Atwood.

That book tells a cat's story in the cat's own voice. Contemporary catalog records and later audiobook notes describe it as a tale meant to awaken concern for cats facing abandonment or death in shelters, which suggests that Friebe wrote with animal welfare very much in mind.

Very little biographical information about Friebe appears to be widely available in major public sources beyond her name, birth year, and this surviving title. Because the record is so sparse, she remains an appealingly mysterious figure: an early 20th-century author whose remembered legacy rests on one compassionate book about the lives of animals.