Eleanor Mercein Kelly

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 30, 1880, Eleanor Mercein Kelly became an American writer of fiction and nonfiction whose books were especially noted for their vivid international settings. She wrote novels, short stories, and a biographical study, and she was widely traveled, using those experiences as material for her fiction.

Kelly published a total of fifteen books, including fourteen novels and one biography, The Chronicle of a Happy Woman: Emily A. Davison (1928). Much of her fiction was romantic in tone and set in places that would have felt glamorous or unusual to many readers of her time. Her stories also appeared in major magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, Collier's, The Century Magazine, Munsey's Magazine, Harper's Monthly, and The Saturday Evening Post.

Several of her works found a second life in film. She is especially associated with Kildare of Storm and Basquerie, the latter adapted into the 1931 film Their Mad Moment. Kelly died in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 11, 1968.