author
Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger
1870–1960
An early 20th-century American writer and editor, she moved between popular fiction, drama, and theater history. Her work ranged from prize-winning stage writing to books that helped readers explore how drama developed across the centuries.
1 Audiobook
The Stolen Singer
by Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger
About the author
Born in Alstead, New Hampshire, in April 1870, Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger studied at Mount Holyoke College, graduating in 1892. She built a varied literary career as both an author and an editor, with connections to publishing houses including Bobbs-Merrill, Macmillan, and the Methodist Publishing Company.
She is known for the novel The Stolen Singer and for A Short History of the Drama, a wide-ranging survey of theatrical history first published in 1927. Earlier in her career, she also gained notice for the prize-winning play A Woman's Sphere, which was recognized in a New York World contest and later produced onstage.
Bellinger died on January 5, 1960. Though she is not widely read today, her career reflects the breadth of literary work open to American women writers of her era: fiction, stage writing, editorial work, and lively popular scholarship.