Miles, Emma Bell, 1879-1919
Biography
Emma Bell Miles was born in Evansville, Indiana to schoolteachers Benjamin Franklin and Martha Ann Mirick Bell. Her family moved to Walden's Ridge in Tennessee, where she spent most of her time wandering the woods, studying nature, reading and writing. In 1899 Emma Bell went to the St. Louis School of Art, where she spent two years before becoming home sick and moving back home. In October 1901 she married Frank Miles, and together they had five children.
Biography
Following the publication of Emma Bell's first poem, "The Difference", in Harper's Monthly, her work began appearing regularly in national magazines. Her classic study of Southern Appalachia, "The Spirit of the Mountains", was published by James Pott & Company of New York in 1905, and her first published story, "The Common Lot", appeared in Harper's again in 1908. In 1914 she began writing a column for the Chattanooga News about her views on the environment and human nature called "Fountain Square Conversations".
Biography
Gaston, Kay Baker. "Emma Bell Miles". The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Accessed February 19, 2016. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=916.