Payne Erskine

Emma Payne Erskine (May 10, 1854 – March 4, 1924)[1] was the author of several works of fiction around the turn of the 20th century, such as The Eye of Dread[2] and The Mountain Girl.

"[4] A popular writer of her genre during her time, her romance novel, The Mountain Girl, was a leading story in Ladies' Home Journal shortly after it was published.

It is possible and likely that her childhood at the brunt of the United States Civil War affected her creation of certain stories which take place at that same time.

In 1917, just less than ten years after her first husband's death, she married again to Cecil Corwin from New York City, a lifelong friend of hers and an early mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright.

She wrote, in total, ten works of fiction, mostly American themed and taking place in North Carolina.