Elia W. Peattie (1862–1935)

Elia W. Peattie, née Wilkinson, was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and moved with her family to Chicago, Illinois when she was young. She left school at age 14 but continued reading and writing. In 1883, she married Robert Burns Peattie, a journalist. The couple wrote stories together in the evenings to supplement his salary, and in 1886, Elia started writing for the Chicago Tribune. She soon became the first woman reporter for the Tribune. Two years later, the couple moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where Elia and her husband both worked for the Omaha World-Herald. Her career flourished, and she became the chief editorial writer for the paper. She also wrote a daily column called "A Word to the Women." She focused on many critical social issues of the day, including women's suffrage. She also contributed prolifically to leading magazines of the era, including Harper's Weekly. In 1888, she published a 700-page young people's history called The Story of America. The Northern Pacific Railroad then commissioned her to write a popular travel guide entitled Alaska: A Trip through Wonderland (1889). Peattie was considered an uncommon woman of her time, writing weird and supernatural fiction. Her stories included "A Grammatical Ghost (1898)," "A Michigan Man (1891)," and "The Shape of Fear (1898)." She eventually returned to Chicago and became literary editor of the Chicago Tribune.