I. T. (Ida Treadwell) Thurston

Ida Treadwell Thurston, who also published as I. T. Thurston, was an American writer born in 1848 and died in 1918. Surviving catalog and library records connect her with popular juvenile and family fiction, and several of her books remain available through public-domain collections today.

Her best-known works include The Bishop's Shadow, The Big Brother of Sabin Street, The Scout Master of Troop 5, and The Torch Bearer: A Camp Fire Girls' Story. These titles suggest the range of her interests: city children, character-building fiction, and stories shaped by Christian, scouting, and Camp Fire themes.

Although not much biographical detail is easy to confirm from major reference sources, her fiction still offers a useful glimpse of American reading for young people at the turn of the twentieth century. She is remembered less for a single famous biography than for a body of earnest, readable books that aimed to entertain while encouraging kindness, duty, and personal growth.