author
May Folwell Hoisington
b. 1874
A writer of adventure stories for young readers, she also moved in reform-minded circles and left behind papers that reflect a life of civic engagement. Her best-known work, Woodcraft Boys at Sunset Island, blends outdoor skill, teamwork, and early twentieth-century adventure.
1 Audiobook
Woodcraft Boys at Sunset Island
by Lillian Elizabeth Roy, May Folwell Hoisington
About the author
Born in 1874, May Folwell Hoisington was an American writer remembered for adventure fiction for teens. Library and public-domain author records identify her as the author of Woodcraft Boys at Sunset Island, and archival records place her lifespan from 1874 to 1955.
She was more than a novelist. The Schlesinger Library at Harvard describes her as a suffragist active in local organizations, especially the Equal Franchise League of Rye, New York. Those same archival records note her friendship with Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson and Ernest Thompson Seton, linking her life to broader movements in reform, nature study, and outdoor culture.
That mix of civic energy and enthusiasm for the outdoors helps explain the spirit of her fiction. Her surviving papers suggest a life that reached beyond the page, making her an appealing figure for readers interested in both early girls' and boys' adventure literature and the social world that shaped it.