Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (also wrote as: Sarah A. Allen) (1859-1930) was a prominent early African- American novelist, journalist, playwright, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes. Hopkins' earliest known work, Slaves' Escape; or, The Underground Railroad is one of the earliestknown literary treatments of slaves escaping to freedom. She explored the difficulties faced by African-Americans amid the racist violence of post- Civil War America in her first novel, Contending Forces, published in 1900. She published a number of serial novels over the next sixteen years as well as short stories in African-American periodicals. Hopkins spent the remainder of her years working as a stenographer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Amongst her other works are Hagar's Daughter (1901) and Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest (1902).
