Literary Ladies Guide

From  the 1940 Grossett & Dunlap edition of Anne of Avonlea, the 1909 sequel to Anne of Green Gables: 

“A tall, slim girl, ‘half-past sixteen’ with serious grey eyes and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse …”

So began this gentle and much-loved sequel to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Five years have passed since the orphan girl Anne Shirley came to the childless home of siblings Matthew and Marilla , bringing with her all of the joy and love of her generous nature.

She has come back to Avonlea to teach school in the same village school where she herself was taught. Teaching in neighboring village schools are her friends Diana Berry, Jane Andrews, Priscilla Gray, and Gilbert Blythe. Read More→

Early on in her writing career, an incident in Agatha Christie’s personal life practically transformed her into a character from her mystery novels. Already a well-known author (though nowhere near the fame she would later achieve), she went missing on December 3, 1926, her whereabouts unknown for eleven days.

So intense was the concern over her disappearance that a nationwide search ensued in England.

At the time, Agatha was 36 years old, and had been married to Archie Christie since 1914. Though they were initially in love, their relationship was stormy from the start, and time proved that they weren’t a good match.

Some time before the disappearance incident, Archie had met Nancy Neele, and the two embarked on an affair. When he confessed the liaison to Agatha, the couple quarreled, and in a pique, Agatha took off in her car. Read More→

Every Pride and Prejudice fan can quote the famous opening line of Jane Austen’s beloved classic, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” There are lots more gems where that came from, as evidenced by the memorable quotes from Pride and Prejudice on life, love, and marriage that follow.

Jane’s family recognized her talent, and with the assistance of her father and brothers, they sought to find a publisher for Pride and Prejudice. Amazingly considering the book’s iconic status, they met with no success. Soon, they embarked on a similar mission for Sense and Sensibility. Read More→

Dear Literary Ladies,
I always thought that one needed great swathes of time to get any writing done. Now I hear that some esteemed authors worked in short bursts and still produced an enormous amount of brilliant work. How did you do it, and what did you do with the rest of your time?

I work from two and a half to three hours a day. I don’t hold myself to longer hours; if I did, I wouldn’t gain by it. The only reason I write is because it interests me more than any other activity I’ve ever found. I like riding, going to operas and concerts, travel in the west; but on the whole writing interests me more than anything else. Read More→

Country Place by Ann Petry (1947) came on the heels of the massive success of her first novel, The Street, published just the year before. The Street was groundbreaking, becoming the first novel by an African-American woman to sell more than a million copies. It would eventually sell more than a million and a half, and was reissued in a new edition in 1992.

Born Ann Lane (1908 – 1997), she was was raised in Old Saybrook, Connecticut and was shielded from the very worse effects of racism in early 20th-century America. In 1938, she married George Petry, and the couple moved to Harlem. There she began a writing career in earnest, working as a journalist, columnist, and editor. Read More→

The Street by Ann Petry (1946) was the first novel by a Black woman writer to sell more than a million copies — all told, it sold more than 1.5 million. The story centers on Lutie Johnson, a young Black single mother coping with racism, sexual harassment, violence, and class divisions in World War II-era New York City.

Ann Petry was raised in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and grew up as part of a middle-class Black family. Her father, a pharmacist, and her mother, a podiatrist, provided a relatively sheltered life for Ann and her siblings.

Ann followed in her father’s footsteps and became a pharmacist, but writing was her true ambition. She was an admirer of Jo March, the budding author and main character in Louisa May Alcott‘s Little Women. Read More→

The Narrows by Ann Petry (1953) was the third and last full-length novel for adult readers by the groundbreaking author of the 1946 blockbuster, The Street.

Though Petry would never replicate the incredible success of The Street, which became the first novel by an African-American woman to sell more than a million copies, The Narrows is a solid entry into the canon of an American author whose talent deserves to be more widely recognized. Read More→

A brief description of the The Other One, from the 1931 edition, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy: The Other One by Colette is a bravura performance which perhaps she alone among writers could have carried off with such perfect tact.

It has for its essential theme the acceptance by a wife of another woman in the home, not so much as a rival, but rather as an ally who “seconds” her in the difficult task of keeping her roving and egocentric husband within bounds.

Although it is true that the other woman succumbs to the husband’s seduction, this is no study in polygamy, but a poignant, brilliantly analyzed story of two women with much in common and a determination not to become antagonists.  Read More→