Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 22, 1872, she grew up in a family steeped in books and ideas. Her father was the clergyman Edward Abbott, her mother Clara Davis Abbott edited Literary World, and she was the granddaughter of children's author Jacob Abbott. She attended Cambridge private schools and Radcliffe College before beginning her own writing career.

Her early success came in poetry when Harper's Magazine awarded her a prize for "The Harvard Pilgrim," and she went on to publish short stories widely in popular magazines, especially Ladies' Home Journal. She became known for lively romantic fiction centered on young women, and her novels found a broad readership in the 1910s and 1920s.

Among her best-known books are Molly Make-Believe, Little Eve Edgarton, and The White Linen Nurse. She married Dr. Fordyce Coburn in 1908 and later lived in New Hampshire. She died on June 4, 1958, in Portsmouth, leaving behind a body of work remembered for its charm, energy, and warm sense of humor.