Holley was a well-known regional novelist of late-nineteenth-century America. Her folksy, opinionated, and comic characters garnered much commercial success in her day, and she was often compared to Mark Twain. Her work explores topical issues such as women's suffrage, racial relations, class divisions, temperance, war, and the treatment of women in society.

Biographical Information

Holley was born in Jefferson County, New York on July 16, 1836. The youngest of seven children, she grew up on a farm and had a special interest in music. As a young woman, she helped support her family by selling handicrafts and giving music lessons to young women from prosperous families. Holley also wrote verse, and in 1857 she began to publish her work in the local newspaper, The Jefferson County Journal, under the pseudonym Jemymah. In 1872, Elisha Bliss, Mark Twain's publisher, commissioned her to write a humorous novel; My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet's was published...