Eleanor Porter was on 19th December 1868 in Littleton, New Hampshire. She was trained as a singer but later turned to writing.  She married John Lyman Porter on 3 May 1892 and started writing short stories, usually set in New England, which were published in the popular magazines and newspapers of the day including Woman's Home Companion and Harper's Weekly.

Cross Currents (1907) was her first full-length novel to be published, followed by The Turn of the Tide (1908) and The Story of Marco. Miss Billy (1911) was her first commercial success, followed by Miss Billy's Decision (1912) and Miss Billy Married (1914). However, it was her move into children's fiction with Pollyanna (1913) that Porter won international acclaim. The young orphan Pollyanna Whittier was inspiration to young boys and girls everywhere with her irrepressible optimism and joie de vivre, "just breathing isn't living!”. "Glad Clubs" sprang up, and the book was adapted for the theatre, television and screen productions. Mary Pickford starred in the silent version of 1920, Hayley Mills in the 1960s version. 

She wrote a sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up, published in 1912. Porter died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1920. Although her adult fiction was popular during her lifetime, it is for the adventures of her young heroine that she will always be remembered.