Julia Bernelle Smade Babcock (born April 28, 1868, Union, Ohio; died Petit Jean, Arkansas, June 14, 1962) was an American author who wrote over 40 novels, as well as numerous essays and newspaper articles. After being widowed at age 29 with five children to support, she began working as a writer. Her first book, the pro-Prohibition The Daughter of the Republican (1900), sold over 100,000 copies.
Babcock was society page editor of the Arkansas Democrat and later owned and edited The Arkansas Sketch Book, the first venture of its kind in the state. She wrote Mammy, a drama read at Chautauqua and on lyceum circuits. She is also the author of:
Babcock founded The Arkansas Museum of Natural History and Antiquities in Little Rock, and worked as a folklore editor for the Federal Writers' Project. In 1953, she retired to a home on Petit Jean Mountain, where she continued to write, publishing a volume of poetry, The Marble Woman, at age 91 in 1959. She died at her home on June 14, 1962; a neighbor found her with a manuscript still in her hand.