Clara Louise Burnham was an American novelist. Following the popularity of No Gentlemen (1881), further volumes appeared, including A Sane Lunatic (1882), Dearly Bought (1884), Next Door (1886), Young Maids and Old (1888), The Mistress of Beech Knoll (1890), and Miss Bagg's Secretary (1892). She is George Frederick Root's daughter and authored the text for several of his most successful cantatas. The 1923 film A Chapter in Her Life is based on Burnham's novel Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life, written in 1903. She was born in Massachusetts and died at her family's house in Maine in 1927. Clara Louise Root was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1854. She was the oldest of six children born to Dr. George Frederick Root, a musical composer, and the former Mary Woodman. Her father, who became a senior partner at Root & Cady in Chicago, relocated with his family to the city while Burnham was a child, and Chicago became her home from then on. A visit for numerous summers to the old homestead in North Reading, Massachusetts, combined with memories of her early upbringing, provided her with an understanding of New England dialect and character, which she later incorporated in her writing. She was primarily interested in music when she was little.
