Emma Ghent Curtis (May 18, 1860 – February 9, 1918) was an American novelist, poet, newspaper publisher, Populist, and suffragist.

Emma Ghent married James Curtis, a rancher, on January 2, 1882, in Cañon City, Colorado.

Set in Colorado, the novel explores the negative effects of sex work on both men and women.

Gessia, a music teacher, marries a handsome and well-off rancher, only to discover that he previously patronized the local brothel.

[5] Curtis served on the Board of Control for the State Industrial School for Boys, a juvenile corrections facility located in Jefferson County, Colorado, from 1893 to 1896.

The school was established by the state in 1881, and served to teach industrial skills like farming, masonry, blacksmithing, and printing to boys aged 7–16 who had been convicted of crimes.

[12][13] Victoria Lamont argues that the cowboy novel, previously thought to have started with Owen Wister's The Virginian, in fact began with Curtis's The Administratrix, published more than 10 years earlier.