Martha Finley was a 19th century American author of children's stories. Her characters were good children rewarded for their high moral character. She wrote Elsie Dinsmore in 1867, which was her first book about Elsie. Elsie was a virtuous Christian girl who resisted small temptations. This book was enormously popular. Finley wrote 27additional books about Elsie taking her through her adult life and ending with her as a grandmother. This series was popular in the United States and in Britain selling over 25,000,000 books.