Viola Roseboro'

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Viola Roseboro' (December 3, 1857 – January 29, 1945) was an American literary editor who helped shape early American magazines and discover new writers. She served as a fiction editor for McClure's and later for Collier's, and was praised by Ida Tarbell as a “born reader” and a “reader of real genius.”

Early life
Roseboro' was born in Pulaski, Tennessee, to abolitionist parents Samuel Reed Roseboro' and Martha Colyar. During the Civil War the family moved to Mattoon, Illinois. She studied at Fairmount School in Monteagle, Tennessee. Early in life she used the name Viola Roseborough and briefly pursued acting with the Shook and Collier Company. She moved to New York City in 1882 to continue acting but had to retire in 1887 after contracting pneumonia.

Literary career
Roseboro' started her literary career with a weekly arts column in The Nashville Daily American. By 1887 her work appeared in The Century Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and The Daily Graphic. Through this work she met S. S. McClure, who hired her as a reader for the McClure Syndicate and McClure's Magazine. At McClure's she helped launch the careers of writers such as Sonya Levien and Willa Cather, and she worked with Witter Bynner, whose early poems were published with her approval. She left McClure's in 1911 when McClure lost control of the magazine and joined Collier's in 1913. Later she worked as a freelance editorial consultant and briefly returned to McClure's after 1921. Ida Tarbell called her a “born reader” and a reader of real genius.

Discoveries
Roseboro' helped discover and promote several notable writers, including Jack London, Booth Tarkington (The Gentleman from Indiana), and William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), whom she purchased the first story for under the O. Henry pseudonym.

Influence on Cather
She is credited with aiding the success of Willa Cather's My Ántonia by suggesting that Cather rewrite the novel with Jim Burden as the main viewpoint character. Some scholars also link her to inspirations for characters in Cather’s other works, such as Myra Henshawe in My Mortal Enemy, and Elizabeth Ammons has suggested that Roseboro's 1907 short story The Mistaken Man helped spark Alexander's Bridge.

Writing
Even while editing, Roseboro' wrote fiction of her own, including The Joyous Heart (1903) and Storms of Youth (1920), as well as short story collections Old Ways and New (1892) and Players and Vagabonds (1904).

Names and spelling
Roseboro' name has appeared with variations, including Roseborough and Rosborough; some accounts say she added the apostrophe later in life, while others note it was used by her family earlier.