Myrtle Reed

Myrtle Reed (September 27, 1874 – August 17, 1911) was an American author, poet, journalist, and philanthropist. She wrote a number of bestsellers and published a series of cookbooks under the pseudonym Olive Green.

Biography She was born on September 27, 1874, in Norwood Park, Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of her parents' three children and their only daughter. She was the daughter of author Elizabeth Armstrong Reed and the preacher Hiram V. Reed. She graduated from the West Division High School, Chicago, where she edited the school's newspaper called The Voice, during which time she corresponded with James Sydney McCullough, a young Irish-Canadian who was editing a college newspaper in Toronto.

Selected works

Novels Love Letters of a Musician (1899) Later Love Letters of a Musician (1900) The Spinster Book (1901) Lavender and Old Lace (1902; new edition, 1907), a long-running play adapted by the American playwright David G. Fischer The Shadow of Victory (1903) Pickaback Songs (1903) The Book of Clever Beasts (1904), received a warm letter of appreciation from then President Theodore Roosevelt The Master's Violin (1904) At the Sign of the Jack o' Lantern (1905), made into a silent film directed by Lloyd Ingraham in 1922 A Spinner in the Sun (1906, new edition, 1909) Love Affairs of Literary Men (1907; non-fiction; biographical) Flower of the Dusk (1908), made into a silent film directed by John Hancock Collins in 1918 Old Rose and Silver (1909) Master of the Vineyard (1910; new edition, 1911) Sonnets to a Lover (1910) A Weaver of Dreams (1911), made into a silent film starring Viola Dana in 1918 Threads of Gray and Gold (1913)

Nonfiction She also published a series of cookbooks under the pseudonym of Olive Green: What to Have for Breakfast (1905) Everyday Luncheons (1906) One Thousand Simple Soups (1907) How to Cook Fish (1908) How to Cook Meat and Poultry (1908) One Thousand Salads (1909)

The following works were published posthumously: Everyday Desserts (1911) Myrtle Reed Cookbook (1916) Myrtle Reed Yearbook (1911) A Weaver of Dreams (1911) Threads of Grey and Gold (1913) The White Shield, a collection of short sketches by Myrtle Reed (1912) Happy Women (1913)

Autobiography Myrtle Reed Yearbook (1911), containing biographical foreword

Works about Reed Ethel S. Colson, Myrtle Reed As Her Friends Knew Her (1911) To You, a collection of songs by J. C. Rodenbeck (1919) Papers, 1856–1922 by Chicago Bishop Samuel Fallows (1919), containing correspondence with Myrtle Reed