Willis was ed­u­cat­ed at the La­tin School, Har­vard Un­i­ver­si­ty (grad­u­at­ed 1878), and Bos­ton Un­i­ver­si­ty (LLB 1881). He ini­tial­ly prac­ticed law, but af­ter a short while moved into li­ter­ary ef­forts full time. He con­trib­ut­ed piec­es to the At­lan­tic Month­ly, Cen­tury, Scrib­ner’s, Har­per’s, Lip­pin­cott’s, Mun­sey’s and the North Amer­i­can Re­view. He al­so ed­ite­d The Co­ttage Hearth Ma­ga­zine, The Well­spring and Our Sun­day Af­ter­noon (1881-93). His works include:

• Silver Rags (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: D. Lo­throp, 1886)
• The North­ern Cross, or, Ran­dolph’s Last Year at the Bos­ton La­tin School (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: D. Lo­throp Company, 1887)
• Kelp (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: D. Lo­throp, 1888)
• The Red Mount­ain of Alas­ka (Es­tes and Lau­ri­at, 1889)
• The Gold Hunt­ers of Alas­ka (H. M. Cald­well, 1889)
• In the Morn­ing (Ran­dolph, 1890)
• John Brown­low’s Folks (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: D. Lo­throp, 1891)
• Gulf and Gla­cier (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: D. Lothrop, 1892)
• Christmas on Wheels, 1895
• Around the Yule Log (The Pil­grim Press, 1898)
• Navy Blue (E. P. Dut­ton, 1898)
• The Sleep­ing Beau­ty: A Christ­mas Sto­ry of Today (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: 1899)
• Cleared for Act­ion: a Sto­ry of the Span­ish-Amer­i­can War of 1898 (E. P. Dut­ton, 1899)
• The Head of Pasht (E.P. Dut­ton & Co., 1900)
• Play Away! (D. Es­tes & Com­pa­ny, 1902 )
• The North Pa­ci­fic (E. P. Dut­ton & Com­pa­ny, 1905)