Elizabeth Irons Folsom was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1876. She moved to Bloomington as a young girl and 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. She began writing short stories when she realized she was losing her eyesight. Her short stories were published in popular magazines of the time, and she won the O. Henry Memorial Award for best short story – “Towers of Fame” – in 1923. She died in 1935 in the state hospital in Kankakee following a long illness.
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.
The collection includes a number of her short stories, many newspaper articles about her honors and awards, biographical material, as well as her death certificate and obituaries.