Publishers back East sometimes received illustrations for their books and magazines wrapped around sticks. The drawings had come from the Missouri Ozarks and had been carried on horseback many miles to reach the railroad so they could be shipped East. Once the young artist sold the family cow and rode a horse forty miles to Springfield to catch a train for the East where a new novel of hers was being considered for publication. The author and artist was a sensitive young woman who left the world mysterious poetry, beautiful drawings, a whimsical character known worldwide and two intriguing true-life love stories. She was a woman who was at ease with the intellectual and society circles in the East and with the people of the Ozarks. Some say she is the Rose in the song, “Rose of Washington Square.” Her name was Rose O’Neill.
