Clarissa A. (Clarissa Abia) Kneeland

Clarissa A. Kneeland, also listed as Clarissa Abia Kneeland, was born in 1878 and died in 1950. Library and catalog records identify her as the author of Smugglers' Island and the Devil Fires of San Moros, a juvenile adventure novel published by Houghton Mifflin in 1915.

Archival records for the Kneeland family show that her papers cover the years 1892 to 1949 and focus largely on her life after leaving the Topolobampo Colony in 1913 and settling on Black Mountain with her brother. Those records suggest a life shaped not only by writing, but also by a distinctive family and community history.

Today, she is a relatively obscure author, but her work remains accessible through major public-domain and library collections, which has helped keep her best-known novel in circulation for new readers.