Here’s a gallery of portraits of some of our favorite classic women authors as children, proving that they started out life just like the rest of us mere mortals! First up, Edith Wharton (1867 – 1937) in a painting (at right) done when she was around 8 years old, by Edward Harrison May.
Despite the world of wealth and privilege in which she grew up, she didn’t come into her own until she started to have her writings published. Read More→
Dear Literary Ladies,
Every time I finish a piece of work, I feel so depleted. It feels like I’ll never be able to write another word, let alone complete anything. Is this common, and do accomplished authors ever feel this way?
This fear is one of the horrors of an author’s life. Where does work come from? What chance, what small episode will start the chain of creation? I once wrote a story about a writer who could not write anymore, and my friend Tennessee Williams said, ‘How could you dare write that story, it’s the most frightening work I have ever read.’ I was pretty well sunk while I was writing it.
— Carson McCullers, 1917 – 1967 Read More→
Eleanor Estes (May 9, 1906 – July 15, 1988), born Eleanor Ruth Rosenfield in West Haven, Connecticut was best known for her award-winning children’s books, notably Ginger Pye, The Hundred Dresses, and The Moffats series.
The town of “Cranbury” in which the Moffat books were set was based on her real life hometown of West Haven.
Upon graduating from high school, she joined the staff of the New Haven Free Public Library. Within a few years, she was promoted to Head of Children’s Services there. Read More→
From the 1941 Doubleday, Doran edition: Edna Ferber’s distinguished novels of the American scene, Cimarron, Show Boat, So Big, and many others, she one special quality — they display at once he glamor and the strength of this country, and of the people who built it.
Saratoga Trunk is no exception. Its background, New Orleans and Saratoga in the eighteen eighties is one of the most picturesque America has produced.
But the theme behind the romance between Clint Maroon and Clio Dulling is that of the railroad builders, the men who flung across the land the roads of steel which united it, and toward that end were careless of the means they used. Read More→
It’s surprising how many classic films are based on novels by women authors. One early example was Cimarron (1931), based on the 1929 novel by Edna Ferber, starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne.
Centered on the story of the Oklahoma land rush that began in 1889, Cimarron was the first Western to have won Best Picture, and would be the last for nearly 60 years (until Dances with Wolves received the same honor). A true epic, the film was quite expensive to make and was more of a critical than commercial success. Here’s a small sampling of other notable films based on classic novels by women authors.
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From the 1984 Viking edition of the 1956 novel for young readers, The 101 Dalmatians (originally published as The Hundred and One Dalmatians) by Dodie Smith:
Life was good for the Dalmatian couple Pongo and Missis. With the Dearlys to look after them, they lived in a comfortable home in London where they were able to start a remarkably large family.
Their fifteen beautifully spotted Dalmatian puppies became the talk of the town around Regent’s Park. But Cruella de Vil, a neighbor of the Dearlys, plans to cash in on these gems and their lovely coats! Read More→
Living in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley gives me access to amazing array of day trips within a 2-hour radius, from the frenetic energy of New York City to the bucolic elegance of the Berkshires, where a group of culture-rich towns and villages are set amidst a modest mountain range in western Massachusetts.
As a semi-regular visitor to the Berkshires, one of my favorite places to visit is The Mount in Lenox, the stately mansion designed and built by Edith Wharton, who took possession of it in 1902.
Though she didn’t live here long — only ten years or so — it was in that interlude that she wrote her breakthrough first novel, The House of Mirth (1905) and the haunting classic, Ethan Frome (1911). Read More→
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, then an unknown author, burst on the scene as an instant classic when it was published in 1964.
The children’s novel, set in Manhattan’s upper east side, stars 11-year-old Harriet M. Welsch, who wants to be a famous writer when she grows up. To prepare, she keeps a notebook in which she records details of the world around her in minute detail.
Her observations of the people in her life are funny, poignant, and occasionally downright mean. When her sixth-grade classmates find her notebook and read its contents, Harriet’s world turns upside down. Read More→
