Myrtle Clemmer wrote on missions topics for the Presbyterian Church USA. The materials in this collection were gathered by her for the purpose of writing a more complete biography of Emily Chubbuck Judson for the series United States Authors: a biography which would highlight her development as a writer and the cultural, literary and educational climate of her era. Emily was the third wife of Adoniram Judson, first American missionary to Burma. The focus of this collection of papers is not on her marriage or missionary activity but rather on her literary development and success.

Emily Chubbuck was born in 1817, in Eaton, New York, into a family whose financial needs contributed to her early development as a capable working woman. During the summers she worked in the woolen mill near her home and by the time she was 15, was teaching at the Utica Female Seminary. She earned her livelihood by teaching school for 13 years before her marriage, but her own development as an author was her hobby and her real passion. Even as a girl she contributed to church publications and under the penname Fanny Forester published 4 books in the series “Valuable Religious Books for the Fireside and Sabbath School.” She was well known for her lively articles written for the New York Mirror and a collection of them was published in 1845 under the title Trippings in Author Land, followed by a second collection in 1846,Alderbrook. Although the newspaper did not pay her for these sentimental tales of village life, she won a large following, and the second collection went through eleven editions.

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