Margaret Collier Graham

Born in Illinois in 1850, she later settled in California, where she became active in the state’s literary community. She wrote fiction, poetry, and essays, and her work appeared in widely read periodicals such as The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, and The Californian.

Her writing is often linked with regional and domestic themes, but she also ventured into supernatural fiction. Today, she is especially remembered for "The Phantom Dog," a short story that has kept her name alive with readers interested in classic ghost stories.

She died in 1910, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both magazine culture of the late nineteenth century and the growing literary identity of California.