Eleanor H. Porter

Eleanor H. Porter (1868–1920) was an American novelist born in Littleton, New Hampshire, who trained as a singer before turning to writing fiction in her thirties. She is best remembered for Pollyanna (1913) and its sequel, whose relentlessly optimistic heroine gave the language the word "Pollyanna," and for the Miss Billy trilogy — Miss Billy (1911), Miss Billy's Decision (1912) and Miss Billy—Married (1914) — among the many novels she published in a prolific career cut short by her death at fifty-one.