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From 1878 to 1890 she was employed by Hubert Howe Bancroft in his great history factory in San Francisco. This man, who exploited her talents and energies for a dozen years, presented a biographical and appreciative account of her along with his other helpers, in the 39th and last volume of his series entitled Literary Industries:

Frances Fuller was born in the township of Rome, New York, May 23, 1826. . ..

Frances was the eldest of the family, and was but thirteen years of age when her father settled in Wooster, Ohio. Her education after that was derived from a course in a young ladies' seminary, no great preparation for literary work. At the age of fourteen she contributed to the county papers; when a little older, to the Cleveland Herald, which paid for her poems, some of which were copied in English journals. Then the New York papers sought her contributions, and finally she went to New York for a year to become acquainted with literary people, and was very kindly treated—too kindly, she tells me, because they persuaded her at an immature age to publish a volume of her own and her sister Metta's poems. But worse things were in store than this mistaken kindness. Just at the time when a plan was on foot too make the tour of Europe with some friends, the ill-health of her mother recalled her to Ohio and the end of all her dreams. What with nursing, household cares, and the lack of stimulating society, life began to look very real. A year or two later her father died, and there was still more real work to do, for now there must be an effort to increase the family income month by month. In this struggle Metta was most successful, having a great facility of invention, and being a rapid writer, and stories being much more in demand than poems brought more money. Frances possessed a wider range of intellectual powers, of the less popular because