author
Martha James
b. 1868
A little-known early 20th-century children's writer, remembered for a single whimsical story full of imagination and playful adventure. Her surviving work has the gentle, storybook feel of classic read-aloud fiction.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author appears to be widely documented today. What can be confirmed is that Martha James was born in 1868 and is credited as the author of Little Miss Dorothy: The Story of the Wonderful Adventures of Two Little People.
That book was published in the early 1900s and centers on Dorothy May and her cousin Ray, whose imaginative adventures give the story its light, fanciful charm. The book was illustrated by J. Watson Davis and has been preserved in library and public-domain collections, which is why readers can still discover it today.
Because so few reliable personal details are readily available, Martha James remains something of a literary mystery. Still, her work survives as a small but appealing example of classic children's fiction from the period.