The Elm Tree Tales

Frances Irene Burge Smith Griswold (1826-1900) who was known as S. B. Phelps, Irene Burge Smith, F. Burge Smith, Mrs. Frances I. Burge Smith, Mrs. Fanny I. Burge Smith, Mrs. F. B. Smith and even Fan Fan, was an American fiction writer, poet and journalist. In 1856 she published her first book The Elm Tree Tales, by that time she had married Allen N. Smith, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts and published the book under her married name. From 1860 until 1861 she edited the Ladies' Wreath annual and published Nina; or, Life's Caprices: A Story Founded Upon Fact (1861). She also wrote for children including the ten-volume Fan Fan Stories (1863), and five-volume May and Tom Stories (1869-70) they were published by the American Tract Society. In 1872 she also wrote Sister Eleanor's Brood under the pseudonym S. B. Phelps. Her other works include: Asleep (1871) and The Bishop and Nanette (1873).