She was best known as the creator of the Polyanna series of books, starting with Pollyanna (1913), which were a popular phenomenon.

In 1892 she married John Lyman Porter and relocated to Massachusetts, after which she began writing and publishing her short stories and, later, novels.

[2] She died at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 21, 1920, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

[2] Porter wrote mainly children's literature, adventure stories, and romance fiction.

[1] Her adult novels include The Turn of the Tide (1908), The Road to Understanding (1917), Oh Money!