Mabell S. C. (Mabell Shippie Clarke) Smith

Writing as Mabell S. C. Smith, she was identified by Project Gutenberg as Mabell Shippie Clarke Smith (1864–1942). Her work includes Ethel Morton's Holidays and A Tar-Heel Baron, and Project Gutenberg also lists the latter under the fuller form Mabell Shippie Clarke Pelton, suggesting she published under closely related names.

Her fiction is closely tied to North Carolina. A Tar-Heel Baron is set in the state and reflects regional life, while her better-known children's books focus on family, friendship, and the small dramas of community life. The tone is accessible and engaging, which helps explain why her books continued to find readers long after their first publication.

Although detailed biographical information is not easy to confirm from the sources I found, her surviving books show a writer interested in character, local color, and stories that feel both wholesome and spirited. She remains of interest today mainly through public-domain editions that have kept her work available to new generations of readers.