Kate Langley Bosher

Born in 1865 in Portsmouth, Virginia, she became an American novelist whose work was closely tied to Virginia life. Her best-known books include Mary Cary and The House of Happiness, and her fiction often blended humor, sentiment, and close observation of Southern communities.

She was the daughter of educator and civic leader John Langley, and she spent much of her life in Virginia. Although she wrote during a period when regional fiction was especially popular, her books stood out for their lively heroines and affectionate sense of place.

She died in 1932. Today, she is remembered mainly for the charm of her early twentieth-century novels and for the picture they offer of Virginia society in her era.