Eleanor Putnam

author

Eleanor Putnam

1856–1886

Best known as Eleanor Putnam, this 19th-century American writer left behind a small but memorable body of historical and literary work before her early death. Writing under a pen name, she brought curiosity, atmosphere, and a clear sense of place to subjects from New England history to fiction.

2 Audiobooks

Prince Vance: The Story of a Prince with a Court in His Box

Prince Vance: The Story of a Prince with a Court in His Box

by Arlo Bates, Eleanor Putnam

Princo Vanc'

Princo Vanc'

by Arlo Bates, Eleanor Putnam

About the author

Born Harriet Leonora Vose Bates in 1856, she was an American writer who also published as Eleanor Putnam. She was connected to a literary family and is associated with work that has continued to circulate under the Putnam name.

She is best remembered for Old Salem, a historical work that revisits colonial Salem and the world surrounding the witch trials. Her writing has been noted for making older history feel immediate and readable, blending research with a storyteller's eye for scene and detail.

Bates died in 1886, still young, which makes her career feel especially brief. Even so, the work linked to Eleanor Putnam has given her a lasting place among lesser-known 19th-century American authors whose books still invite rediscovery.