Myrtle Reed

Born in Illinois in 1874, she built a remarkably varied writing life as a novelist, poet, journalist, and philanthropist. Her books found a large audience in the early twentieth century, and her work was known for its sentiment, wit, and attention to everyday beauty.

She wrote several popular novels and also published cookbooks under the pseudonym Olive Green. That mix of fiction, domestic writing, and journalism helped make her a familiar name to many readers of her time.

She died in Chicago in 1911 at just 36 years old, leaving behind a body of work that still reflects the tastes and emotions of a particular moment in American literary life.