Lucia Gilbert Runkle (1844–1927)

Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle was born in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. She became an editorial writer for The New York Tribune, reportedly the first American woman on the staff of a major metropolitan daily newspaper. She married Cornelius A. Runkle, a prominent New York lawyer who served as legal counsel for The Tribune. Later she wrote for the Christian Union and The Outlook. For 10 years, Mrs. Runkle served as the literary adviser to the publishing firm Harper & Brothers, her work including English, French and German manuscripts and books. In 1893, with Charles Dudley Warner, she undertook the enormous task of editing the 30 volumes of Library of the World's Best Literature.
She was a committed suffragist and an important early member of the League for Political Education, established in 1894 by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Eleanor Butler Sanders and several others. Bertha Runkle, her daughter, became a bestselling novelist.