author

Ethellyn Gardner

A little-known early 20th-century author, best remembered for a lively book that captures the excitement of the new automobile age through a young girl’s letters. Her surviving work has a bright, spirited tone that still feels playful and curious.

1 Audiobook

Letters of the Motor Girl

Letters of the Motor Girl

by Ethellyn Gardner

About the author

Very little biographical information about Ethellyn Gardner could be confirmed from reliable sources found during this search. She is known as the author of Letters of the Motor Girl, a work published in 1906 and preserved by sources such as Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page.

That book is written as a series of letters and reflects the novelty and thrill of motoring in the early 1900s. Its cheerful, youthful voice gives modern readers a glimpse of how adventure, technology, and everyday life could be woven together in popular writing of the period.

Because so little verified information about Gardner herself was available, her reputation today rests mainly on this surviving title rather than on a well-documented personal history.