This is an I-Heart podcast.

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Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hello and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

And I'm Holly Fry.

When I was working on our episode about Elizabeth Bisland Beckett, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and I'm Holly Frye.

When I was working on our episode about Elizabeth Bisland back in March,

I stumbled across the name, Vola Roseboro.

And that last name was spelled R-O-S-E-B-O-R-O with an apostrophe at the end, and then nothing after the apostrophe.

That's not something that happens in English language names very much, unless it's a name that

ends in an S, and that apostrophe is making it possessive.

So I wondered who this person was and why her name was spelled that way.

And my cursory look into it landed her on the short list.

Vila Roseboro is not well known today,

but she played a big behind-the-scenes role in the careers of a lot of American writers

in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

including several writers who continue to be staples

in English and English literature classes in the United States. By extension, she helped shape

what is thought of as the American literary canon. Viola Roseboro was born on December 3, 1857 in

Pulaski, Tennessee.

That's in the south central part of the state, roughly 15 miles from the border with Alabama.

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