American historical novelist, born at Buchanan, VA, on the 21st of November 1870, and as she has always been delicate in health she was educated at home. Her childhood and youth were chiefly passed in Virginia, on the banks of the James River. In 1893, her family left West Virginia for New York, where our authoress became for a time practically an invalid. She read and studied assiduously, however, and in the winter of 1896 she wrote and subsequently published The Prisoners of Hope, and later on appeared To Have and to Hold. The success of both novels, in the United States as well as in England, has been phenomenal. Their plots, though slight, are strong and well conceived, and there is an especial charm in their descriptive scenes. Miss Johnston, in 1902, published Audrey. See also The Long Roll.
