Belle Kanaris Maniates was quite thrilled when the movie “Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley” based on her book of the same name and featuring silent film star Mary Pickford premiered at the Colonial Theatre in Lansing in 1918. Lansing residents were quite aware of Maniates’ success, having followed her writing for years. In her lifetime, Maniates wrote eight romantic novels - one, “David Dunne: A Romance of the Middle West” was set in Lansing, partially at the State Capitol.

She also wrote hundreds of short stories that appeared in popular magazines or were serialized in major newspapers. While her writing career was flourishing, she continued to work as a clerk in the Auditor Gemeral’s Office. Maniates was born in Marshall, Michigan. Her father was a doctor, a Greek immigrant who escaped war torn Greece for a better life. Her father died the year she was born.

As a teenager, Belle and her sister published a “newspaper” with a toy press. She published her first short story in 1902 in a New Orleans newspaper. Many of her books and short stories encompassed social justice themes of poverty and orphans.