Atherton, was an American Feminist and writer of social and historical fiction, much of it set in California. Although her reputation is founded primarily on her California fiction and essays, as well her biography of Alexander Hamilton, Atherton also produced a number of Gothic stories, some of them, such as The Bell in the Fog, were considered significant achievements in the Gothic/supernaturalist tradition. She visited England on purpose to meet women who were agitating for equal rights, and turned her experience into the novel Julia France and her Times before returning to California in 1912 to participate in the first election in which women of this state could vote.