Mrs. E. Burke Collins

Born Emma Augusta Browne in Rochester, New York, on September 15, 1858, she later became known in print as Mrs. E. Burke Collins after her first marriage. She wrote during the great age of popular weekly fiction, when readers eagerly followed serial stories, romance, and suspense in newspapers and inexpensive novels.

After being widowed young, she turned seriously to writing and developed a remarkable pace. By the 1890s, she was credited with nearly 100 novels along with thousands of sketches and poems. Her work ranged across sentimental fiction, melodrama, and dime-novel adventure, and one of her best-known successes, A Gilded God, reportedly sold extremely well on first release.

She later became known as Emma Augusta Sharkey after additional marriages, but Mrs. E. Burke Collins remained the name many readers recognized. She died on May 6, 1902. Today, she is remembered as a striking example of a woman who made a real career in mass-market fiction at a time when that was still unusual.