Charles Major

Born in Indianapolis on July 25, 1856, and raised from his teens in Shelbyville, Indiana, Charles Major studied law at the University of Michigan and was admitted to the bar in 1877. Alongside his legal work, he developed a strong interest in history and storytelling, especially the kind of sweeping romance that would shape his fiction.

Major is best remembered as a novelist of historical romance. He wrote popular books set in Tudor and Elizabethan England, and he also turned to Indiana settings in novels such as A Forest Hearth. His success as a writer made him an important part of the group often associated with Indiana's literary "golden age."

He died in Shelbyville on February 13, 1913. Though less widely read now than in his own day, his work still offers a window into the tastes of early twentieth-century readers and into the regional pride that helped define Indiana literature.