Elsie yachting with the Raymonds. By

Elsie and Captain Raymond entertain the young folk with stories of great American naval battles as they yacht up the East Coast, and Max matriculates at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The Author, having received many letters from young and interested readers, has decided to acknowledge them in this way, because feeble health and much work for the publishers make it impossible to write a separate reply to each gratifying epistle.... Martha Finley (April 26, 1828 - January 30, 1909)was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26, 1828, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the pseudonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.