Edward Payson Roe (1838 - 1888) was a Presbyterian minister living in New York after the Civil War. In 1874 he moved to Cornwall-on-the-Hudson where he wrote fiction and studied horticulture. After the Civil War he lectured on the war and wrote periodicals. His novels had a strong moral purpose and their being written by a clergyman helped to break down the Puritanical prejudice against fiction. His best-known works were "Barriers Burned Away" and "The Earth Trembled." An Original Belle is the story of a young girl who at first seems ordinary, but circumstances lead her to be true to her own...