Author Evelyn Scott (1893-1963) was born Elsie Dunn in Clarksville, Tennessee to Seely and Maude Thomas Dunn. The family moved around but Scott was primarily raised in New Orleans. In 1913, she married Frederick Creighton Wellman (1873-1960), and they changed their names to Evelyn Scott and Cyril Kay-Scott (largely because Cyril was already married); the couple then fled to Brazil where they lived until 1919. Together they had one son, Creighton “Jigg” Scott, born in 1914. It was also during her time in Brazil that Scott began writing poetry and essays. She then published her first trilogy of novels, beginning with The Narrow House, between 1921-1923. Over the next two decades, Scott published several works including the critically acclaimed The Wave (1929) and Eva Gay (1932). She later left Cyril by 1928, and then married novelist John Metcalfe (1891-1965) in 1930. Following health complications, Scott died in 1963.

From 1923 to 1969, Elizabeth Ames (1885-1977) was Executive Director of Yaddo, an artist's community in New York where Scott and Metcalfe worked for a time, and is the dedicatory of Scott's book Eva Gay. Ames was born in Minneapolis in 1885 and died on March 28, 1977, at Yaddo.