Hallie Erminie Rives

Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Hallie Erminie Rives became a popular American novelist whose work reached a wide audience in the 1900s and 1910s. Reliable biographical sources describe her as a bestselling writer, and several of her novels drew attention for tackling charged subjects of the day, including sectional politics, race, religion, and gender.

Her best-known books include Smoking Flax, Hearts Courageous, and Satan Sanderson, which was among the bestselling novels in the United States in 1907. In 1906 she married the American diplomat Post Wheeler, and her later life included travel and years spent overseas, especially in East Asia, which fed into some of her later writing and memoir-style work.

Although not as widely read now as she once was, Rives remains an interesting figure from the era of mass-market magazine and novel publishing: a writer who aimed for big themes, strong feeling, and lively public debate. She died in 1956.