Woman of the Century/Belle Kellogg Towne

TOWNE, Mrs. Belle Kellogg, author and journalist, born in Sylvania. Racine county. Wis., 1st June, 1844. She is the daughter of the late Seth H. and Electa S. Kellogg. She began at an early age to display literary talent, but it was not until her marriage with Prof. T. Martin Towne, of Chicago, Ill., the well-known musical composer, that she was induced to embrace pen-work as a vocation. Ten years ago she was asked to take charge of the various young people's papers published by the David C. Cook Publishing Company, of Chicago. There she has found a wide field, not only for her literary gift, but executive ability. BELLE KELLOGG TOWNE. The "Young People's Weekly," the most noted of the periodicals published by that firm, is ranked among the foremost of religious papers for the young. Mrs. Towne reads the numerous manuscripts contributed for all the papers in her hands, and, although charitable to the young or obscure author, she has no sympathy with a writer who has no talent, or with one who has talent, but uses it unworthily or in a slipshod manner. All her business correspondence and original composition she dictates to a stenographer, and recently she has made large use of the phonograph in her literary work. She has written much and well. She is one of the rare examples of a successful author who is an equally successful editor.