E. F. (Elizabeth Fries) Ellet

Born Elizabeth Fries Lummis in Sodus Point, New York, in 1818, she published Poems, Translated and Original in 1835 while still very young. She married chemist William Henry Ellet the same year and went on to build a wide-ranging literary career that included poetry, essays, translation, biography, and history.

Her most lasting achievement was The Women of the American Revolution, a major multi-volume work first published in the 1840s. It is often remembered as one of the earliest serious efforts to document the lives and contributions of women in the Revolutionary era, making her an important early historian of women in America.

She also wrote on domestic life and social history, and she moved in prominent literary circles of the 19th century. Although her name is sometimes mentioned in connection with literary controversies of her time, her enduring significance comes from the way she preserved overlooked stories and widened the scope of American historical writing.