Helen Addison Howard (1904-1989) was an American writer born in Missoula, Montana in 1904. She worked as a reporter and feature writer for the Daily Missoulian from 1923 until 1929. She earned her bachelor's degree in English from Montana State University—now the University of Montana—in 1927, and later a master's degree in English from the University of Southern California in 1933. She remained in California after graduation, and met and married Ben Overland, a Los Angeles restaurant owner, in 1946. She was a member of the Women's Ambulance and Defense Corps of America (1942-1945), did survey work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1943, and clerked for the Los Angeles Police Department in 1950-1951.