Edward Sylvester Ellis

Edward Sylvester Ellis (1840–1916) was an American author, schoolteacher and school administrator who became one of the most productive writers of dime novels of the nineteenth century. His first success, Seth Jones; or, The Captives of the Frontier, sold hundreds of thousands of copies in 1860 and set the pattern for the frontier adventure story. Under his own name and a long list of pseudonyms he wrote several hundred books, including the Deerfoot series for boys, popular histories of the United States and its wars, biographies, and reference books for schools such as 1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described.