By Robert van Gelder | On January 26, 2015 | Updated August 7, 2026 | Comments (0)
This interview with the wonderful Southern writer Eudora Welty (1909 – 2001) is excerpted from Writers and Writing by Robert van Gelder (1946).
A short story writer of exceptional talent talks of her work – June 14, 1942: Eudora Welty said that when she was younger she was very much interested in herself and always projected herself into her stories.
“The stories were awful. I’m from Jackson, Mississippi, and never had been much of anywhere else, but the action in my stories took place in Paris. They were awful. I remember the first line in one of them: ‘Monsieur Boule deposited a delicate dagger in Mademoiselle’s left side and departed with a poised immediacy.’ Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On January 24, 2015 | Updated November 29, 2024 | Comments (0)
Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) imparted wisdom in her fiction as well as in her personal writings and interviews. Here’s a sampling of life lessons from Louisa May Alcott, a woman who worked hard and loved her family fiercely, even as she struggled with her health. We can all learn from her!
Best known for Little Women, she conducted her career as a professional determined to profit from her pen. In her life and writings, Alcott promoted women’s rights and campaigned for women’s suffrage.
Her views were espoused by her lead characters, strong young women who wanted more from life than to get married and have babies. She and her family were ardent abolitionists, a view that wasn’t as widely accepted in Massachusetts as one might think. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On January 24, 2015 | Updated January 14, 2024 | Comments (0)
Louisa May Alcott’s Obituary, originally published in the New York Tribune, March 7, 1888: BOSTON, Mass., March 6 – Miss Louisa M. Alcott Following her Father to the Grave — Cold Quickly Develops into Spinal Meningitis
Miss Louisa May Alcott died this morning. Coming so soon after the death of her father the suddenly announced decease of Miss Alcott brings a double sorrow to the many friends of the family.”
For a long time Miss Alcott has been ill, suffering from nervous prostration. Last autumn, placing herself under the charge of Dr. Green of Columbus Avenue, she appeared to be improving and afterward went to Dunreath Place at the Highlands to live temporarily with Dr. Lawrence. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On January 23, 2015 | Updated May 11, 2025 | Comments (2)
Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott is a collection of four novellas that reveal another side of the author best known for Little Women.
Louisa May Alcott started her writing career with “blood and thunder” tales that evidently, she rather enjoyed producing, even as they helped her make the money she so needed to earn as a way to support her family.
Each of these stories features sharp-witted, outspoken women. Alcott manages to give each tale a twist, and imbues them with suspense and irony. Four stories are included in this edition, although Alcott wrote several more Gothic tales.
Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On January 22, 2015 | Updated September 16, 2022 | Comments (0)
Following is an excerpt from the preface of The Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin, in which she discusses why she wrote this 1976 collection of erotica, mainly aimed at a female audience:
“At the time (1941) we were all writing erotica at a dollar a page, I realized that for centuries we had only one model for this literary genre — the writing of man. I was already conscious of a difference between the masculine and feminine treatment of sexual experience.
I know that there was a great disparity between Henry Miller’s explicitness and my ambiguities — between his humorous, Rabelasian view of sex and my poetic descriptions of sexual relationships in the unpublished portions of the Diary. Read More→
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