author
J. Breckenridge (John Breckenridge) Ellis
1870–1956
A once-popular Missouri novelist and teacher, he wrote historical romances and other fiction that reached a wide early-20th-century audience. His life story was just as striking as his books: after childhood illness left him unable to use his legs and later failing eyesight pushed him to learn braille, he kept writing for decades.
3 Audiobooks
Fran
by J. Breckenridge (John Breckenridge) Ellis
The Story of a Life
by J. Breckenridge (John Breckenridge) Ellis
Lahoma
by J. Breckenridge (John Breckenridge) Ellis
About the author
Born near Hannibal, Missouri, in 1870, John Breckenridge Ellis spent most of his life in Clinton County after his family moved to Plattsburg. He studied at Plattsburg College, later taught there, and became known as both an educator and a remarkably productive author.
Ellis wrote more than twenty-five books, many of them historical romances, along with numerous serials for magazines. His best-known works included Fran and Lahoma, and several of his stories were adapted for silent films, showing how widely his fiction traveled in its day.
His career is especially notable for the obstacles he overcame. A bout of spinal meningitis in early childhood left him without the use of his legs, and when his eyesight later began to fail, he taught himself braille. Even with those challenges, he continued to write and publish into a long life, dying in Oklahoma in 1956.