The Moffats is a children’s novel by Eleanor Estes, the first of a series of four books about a fictional family. The four Moffat children — Sylvie, Joey, Janey and Rufus — live with their widowed mother in Cranbury, a small town in Connecticut.
Though the novel was published in 1941, the story begins in the World War I era. It’s notable for focusing on a family headed by a single, working-class, working mother. Mama, as she is called, is a dressmaker.
Rather than being plot-driven, the book is episodic, with each chapter containing a more or less self-contained adventure of the Moffat children. Read More→
Katherine Mansfield (1888 – 1923) was a New Zealand-born writer recognized for revolutionizing the modern English short story. Though she had many challenges in her short life, her grit and courage comes through in this selection of quotes by Katherine Mansfield.
In 1908, firmly ensconced in the bohemian life in London, she began writing short stories. Her first collection was published in 1911 and reflected a certain disillusionment with her native country. Titled In a German Pension, it received favorable reviews and was praised for “acute insight” and “unquenchable humour.”
She was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1917 but continued to write on a daily basis until she could no longer do so by 1922. Though she had many challenges in her short life, her grit and courage comes through her words.
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This musing on the literary friendship of British author George Eliot and her American contemporary Harriet Beecher Stowe is contributed by Emily Midorikawa, author of A Secret Sisterhood:The Hidden Friendships of Austen, Brontë, Eliot and Woolf.
Even before she found literary fame, Mary Ann Evans (1819 – 1880), better known by the pen name George Eliot, was firmly entrenched in a London social circle that was unconventional, intellectual, and predominantly male.
There was also the matter of her “living in sin” with critic and philosopher George Henry Lewes – a state that kept many “respectable ladies” away from her door. Read More→
Carson McCullers (1917 – 1967; born Lula Carson Smith) is known for her incisive novels, especially her first,The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Published in 1940 when she was only 23, McCullers instantly became the toast of the literary scene.
McCiullers wrote in other genres as well, including plays, short stories, children’s poetry, and other works. Most of her work is set in the American South and involves people struggling with loneliness and isolation.
Many critics place her among the best southern writers, along with William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Tennessee Williams. Read More→
Show Boat by Edna Ferber is a 1926 novel telling the story of three generations of performers on a floating theater, the Cotton Blossom.
As the titled show boat travels down the Mississippi River from the 1880s to the 1920s, readers get a glimpse of a forgotten form of American entertainment.
In that era, floating theaters stopped in river towns that normally didn’t have access to high quality performances because of their distance and isolation from major urban centers. Edna Ferber captured the spirit of this way of life with her skillful storytelling and captivating characters. Read More→
Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was a prolific American author and editor of children’s books, best known for Goodnight Moon (1947) and The Runaway Bunny (1942).
Margaret grew up in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, the middle of three children whose well-to-do parents made no secret of their unhappy marriage. Margaret was an imaginative child who loved adventure and the outdoors.
She had more than one hundred books published during her lifetime and left behind a trove of unpublished works found after her death. The word “prolific” seems almost inadequate to describe Margaret Wise Brown’s output. Read More→
Madeleine L’Engle (1918 – 2007) was an author of fantasy fiction for children and young adults, best known for A Wrinkle in Time and the series of books that followed. She had trouble finding a publisher for what became her most famous book; editors were concerned that it was “too dark for children.”
Her career began after graduating college when she wrote plays that were published followed by her books and honorary degrees.
L’Engle wrote much about her life as a writer, and as a working mother. She mused on the challenges of the writing life and juggling her career with the raising of her children. Here is a selection of quotes by Madeleine L’Engle that speak to her thoughtfulness and honesty. Read More→
Patricia Highsmith wrote novels and short stories that had elements of crime in the genre of psychological thrillers, many starring sociopaths like Ripley.
Early in her career, she briefly departed from what would become this favored genre to produce a novel about two women falling in love. The Price of Salt (1952) would become the basis of the film adaptation, Carol, several decades later (2015), starring Cate Blanchett in the title role, with Rooney Mara as her younger love interest.
The Price of Salt was also unique in that it was a novel about same-sex love that made it past the rule laid down by the era’s censors: No happy endings were allowed.
Until her first novel, Strangers on a Train was published in 1950, Highsmith worked as a freelance scriptwriter. The following year it was made into the famous Hitchcock film of the same name.
Highsmith had a dim view of humanity and was often described as a misanthrope, but the following romantic quotes from The Price of Salt reveal that Highsmith had a softer side. Read More→
