Ellis Parker Butler was an American novelist, essayist, journalist, short story writer, and poet. He was a founding member of the Author's League of America. Butler was born on December 5, 1869 in Muscatine, Iowa and died on September 13, 1937 in Williamsville, Massachusetts. He spent much of his life in Flushing, Queens, New York City. Butler's writing career spanned more than forty years. He wrote more than thirty published books and more than two thousand short stories, essays, articles and poems. His works were published im more than two hundred different magazines.