Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (1872-1958) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The daughter of clergyman Edward Abbott and granddaughter of well-known children,s author Jacob Abbott, she grew up in a religious and scholarly environment. After studying at Radcliffe, she worked as a secretary and a teacher at Lowell State Normal School. She began writing poems and short stories for publication shortly thereafter. In 1908 she married Dr. Fordyce Coburn and moved to Wilton, New Hampshire. Here she met her first literary successes, with sales to such prominent magazines of the day as Harper's, Collier's, and The Delineator. She soon received national recognition, going on to publish fourteen books and more than seventy-five short stories. Her romantic fiction focused primarily on young women and was described as "charming" by readers of the day. Her work was most popular in the 1910s and 1920s. This volume collects two of her shorter works: "The Indiscreet Letter" and "Little Eve Edgarton," which are typical of her style and range.