Edith B. (Edith Bertha) Ordway

Edith B. Ordway, fully Edith Bertha Ordway, was an American author born in 1877. Library and authority records confirm her name and dates, and show her publishing in the early 1900s under the form "Edith B. Ordway."

Her books reveal an impressively wide range of interests. She wrote The Etiquette of To-day in 1913, a guide to social behavior, and she is also associated with The Opera Book and Handbook of the Operas, works that helped introduce readers to opera stories and background in an accessible way. Project Gutenberg also preserves her Handbook of Conundrums, showing another side of her work: humor, riddles, and verbal wit.

Taken together, Ordway's writing has the feel of a smart companion for curious readers—someone interested in manners, entertainment, and useful reference all at once. While not much biographical detail was available in the sources I could confirm, her surviving books make clear that she had a knack for organizing knowledge and presenting it in a friendly, readable form.