Ellen M. (Ellen Melville) Willard

Active in the early 1900s, Ellen M. Willard is credited as the author of Yuletide Entertainments and The Favorite Book of Drills. Her books were designed for community, school, and holiday programs, offering recitations, monologues, drills, tableaux, songs, and short plays that were easy to present.

The surviving record available online is quite sparse, but the books themselves suggest a writer with a strong feel for performance that was cheerful, organized, and accessible. Her work fits a popular tradition of practical entertainment books that helped teachers and local groups put on seasonal and educational events.

Because reliable biographical sources are limited, not much more can be confirmed here beyond her authorship, the form of her work, and her approximate birth year of 1853.