Sarah Barnwell Elliott (1848–1928)

Sarah Barnwell Elliott was born in Savannah, Georgia (some sources say Beaufort, SC), one of five children of Stephen and Charlotte Barnwell Elliott. Her father was a bishop in the Episcopal Church who helped found the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. She received private tutoring and attended classes at Johns Hopkins University in 1886 before moving to Sewanee. From 1895 to 1902, she worked as a writer in New York City, where she joined the women's rights movement, then returned to Sewanee to assist her family and spent the rest of her life there. She served as president of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association. She wrote novels, short stories, book reviews, articles, essays, poetry, and biography. Notable works included the novels The Felmeres (1879), A Simple Heart (1887), Jerry (1891), and The Making of Jane (1901).