Elizabeth Irons Folsom Fox
Born: 1862 in Peoria, Illinois
Died: 1935 in Kankakee, Illinois Pen Name: Elizabeth Irons Folsom Connection to Illinois: Fox was born in Peoria. Her family moved to Bloomington when she was young. She graduated from Bloomington High School. She worked at the Daily Pantagraph as a drama critic, then a columnist, and finally 14 years as court reporter. Biography: Elizabeth Folsom Fox sold the first story she ever wrote. After 14 years at the Pantagraph and with her eyesight failing, 'Lizzie' felt that she could no longer perform her job as a court reporter and decided to try her hand at writing short stories. After selling several stories to Munsesy's Magazine in New York City, she decided to go to New York City to try her luck at establishing a writing career. In the first five years of being a fiction writer, Lizzie published about 60 short stories. In 1924 when she won an O’Henry Award in the category of Best Published Short Story Under 3,000 words for ''Towers of Fame''. She also wrote novels publishing her first one in 1925. She was married twice: first to Pantagraph advertising manager Percy A. Folsom, and a number of years after his death to Chicago stock broker William Fox. Lizzie did not do very much writing in the last years of her life. She was completely blind during those last few years and her health began to fail. The last year and four months of her life were spent at Kankakee State Hospital.
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