Eleanor Atkinson

Born in Rensselaer, Indiana, in 1863, Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson built a varied literary life as a teacher, journalist, publisher, and author. Reliable reference sources describe her as an American writer, journalist, and teacher, and note that she worked for the Chicago Tribune under the pen name Nora Marks after beginning her career in education.

She wrote across genres, but she is most often remembered today for Greyfriars Bobby (1912), the novel that helped preserve the famous Edinburgh dog's story for generations of readers. Her background in journalism seems to have given her writing a clear, lively style, while her work in children's literature made her especially well suited to stories that mixed warmth, history, and adventure.

Atkinson died in 1942. For listeners coming to her work now, she stands out as a writer whose books connect late-19th- and early-20th-century journalism with classic storytelling for young readers.