Helen Hooven Santmyer was born on November 25, 1895 in Xenia, Ohio. She attended both Wellesley College and Oxford University and was active in the struggle for women's rights. During her life, she has worked as a writer, an English professor, a librarian, and a dean of women. She is the author of And Ladies of the Club (1984), which was published when she was 88 years old. Her other works include Early Promise, Late Reward; Herbs and Apples; Ohio Town; and The Fierce Dispute. Early Promise, Late Reward tells the story of a small town Midwestern girl who was educated at Wellesley and became one of the first female Rhodes Scholars. She died on February 21, 1986 and was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.

(Bowker Author Biography)