author
C. A. Mercer
An elusive short-story writer whose surviving trail points to late 19th- and early 20th-century publications, with work ranging from a standalone 1895 title to contributions in a 1918 Atlantic Monthly Press anthology. That air of mystery gives the stories an extra pull.
1 Audiobook
Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories
by Elizabeth Ashe, Henry Seidel Canby, Cornelia A. P. (Cornelia Atwood Pratt) Comer, Charles Caldwell Dobie, Madeleine Z. (Madeleine Zabriskie) Doty, H. G. (Harrison Griswold) Dwight, John Galsworthy, Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Katharine Butler Hathaway, Zephine Humphrey, Mary Lerner, F. J. Louriet, E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas, Margaret Lynn, C. A. Mercer, Margaret Prescott Montague, E. (Edith) Nesbit, Anne Douglas Sedgwick, Dallas Lore Sharp, Margaret Pollock Sherwood, Ernest Starr, Amy Wentworth Stone, Arthur Russell Taylor
About the author
Very little confirmed biographical information appears to be available about this author. Reliable catalog and library sources do show C. A. Mercer as the author of The luck-penny (published in London in 1895) and as a contributor to Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1918).
Reader-facing book databases also associate the name with The Garden of Memories, but the basic published record is much clearer than the personal one. In other words, the work has survived more visibly than the life story.
Because I couldn't confirm details such as full name, dates, nationality, or a trustworthy portrait from the sources I found, I've left those out here rather than guess.