author
Ellis Towne
Best known today for the holiday fantasy “Lill’s Travels in Santa Claus Land,” this elusive 19th-century writer is remembered through a small body of children’s literature rather than a well-documented public life.
1 Audiobook
Lill's Travels in Santa Claus Land, and Other Stories
by Ellis Towne, Sophie May Farman, Ella Farman Pratt
About the author
Very little biographical information about Ellis Towne is easy to confirm from reliable online sources. Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page both list Towne as an author, and surviving editions connect the name with Lill’s Travels in Santa Claus Land, and Other Stories, a collection first published in the late 19th century.
Because the historical record available online is so thin, Ellis Towne is best introduced as a little-known author of children’s fiction whose work has outlasted the details of the person behind it. That air of mystery can be part of the charm: the name is now most closely associated with imaginative, old-fashioned storytelling for young readers.
No clear, verified portrait of Ellis Towne was found from the sources reviewed, so a profile image is not included.