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Olive Harper
1842–1915
A lively late-19th-century American novelist, poet, and journalist, she wrote popular fiction under a pen name and moved easily between literature and the stage. Her career reflects the energy and range of magazine-era writing in the Gilded Age.
1 Audiobook
The shoemaker
by Olive Harper, Hal Reid
About the author
Olive Harper was the pen name of Helen Burrell Jacobs, an American writer born in 1842 and died in 1915. She wrote novels, short fiction, poetry, and journalism, building a varied literary career at a time when periodicals and popular fiction gave writers many different ways to reach readers.
She is especially remembered for works published under the name Olive Harper, including A Fair Californian. Her writing was aimed at a broad audience and fits comfortably within the lively, accessible popular literature of the late nineteenth century.
Beyond her books, she was also associated with theatrical and cultural life, which adds to the sense that she was a versatile public writer rather than a narrowly specialized author. That mix of fiction, journalism, and performance-world experience helps make her an interesting figure in American literary history.