Woman of the Century/Esther Lavilla Allen

ESTER LAVILIA ALLEN. ALLEN, Mrs. Esther Lavilla, author, born in Ithaca, N. Y., 28th May, 1834. While she was was a child, her parents removed to Ypsilanti, Mich., where her youth was passed, and she was educated in the seminary of that town. In 1851 she was married, and for the past few years her home has been in Hillsdale, Mich. She wrote verses in her youth but study first and then domestic cares occupied her attention. She began her literary career in earnest in 1870, when her powers were fully matured. She wrote stories, sketches and poems for publication, and her productions were of that character which insures wide copying. She contributed to the "Ladies' Repository," the "Masonic Magazine," the "Chicago Interior," the "Advance," the "Northwestern Christian Advocate" and other prominent periodicals. Much of her work has been devoted to temperance and missionary' lines but she writes countless poems for all kinds of occasions. Besides her work as a writer, she is a fine reader and she has often read her poetical productions in public, mainly before college societies. Recently she has done less of this work. Mrs. Allen has never collected her productions, although there are enough of them to fill a number cf volumes. At present she is engaged in literary work of a high order.