Isabel Coston Byrum (1870-1938) was an American author. Amongst her most famous works are: Bedtime Stories from the Old Testament (1911), The Value of a Praying Mother (1911), The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher (1919), How John Became a Man: Life Story of a Motherless Boy (1917) and Tread of Years (1938). "Out on the prairie in one of the western states where buffaloes and wild horses once had roamed at their pleasure and where cacti and yuccas still thrived and bloomed could be seen a small two-story frame building. There was nothing strange in this except that the house was different from the average house of the plains; for at this particular time the greater part of the dwellings were made of sod, mud, and brush."