Nina Wilcox Putnam

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1888, Nina Wilcox Putnam was educated at home and began publishing while still young. She went on to build an unusually wide-ranging career as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, columnist, and magazine writer.

Putnam was known for sheer output as much as versatility: reliable sources credit her with more than 500 short stories, around 1,000 magazine articles, and numerous books, serials, and pieces for children. Several of her stories were adapted for film, which helped connect her work to the growing entertainment world of the early 20th century.

Today she is often remembered both for her literary productivity and for her link to classic cinema through the story associated with The Mummy. She died in 1962, leaving behind a body of work that shows just how flexible and industrious a professional writer could be in the magazine and studio era.