Mary Ellen Chase was born on February 28, 1887, in Blue Hill, Maine. As a ten-year-old, she met Maine author Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909), who proved an inspiration to her. She taught at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1926 to 1956. Mary Ellen Chase was the author of more than two dozen books, as well as short stories in Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Argosy All-Story Weekly, Collier's, McCall's, and even Detective Fiction Weekly. The book jacket biography above is from The Plum Tree, a slender book published in 1949. She died on July 28, 1973, in Northampton.
Original text copyright 2023 Terence E. Hanley
