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10 Fascinating Facts about Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe (1819 – 1910) was an American poet, essayist, editor, speaker, and activist extraordinaire, especially in the causes of abolition, suffrage, and the advancement of women everywhere. 

Although her iconic “Battle Hymn of the Republic” is ubiquitous in patriotic, inspirational, and popular settings, its author is far less known. Let’s look at 10 fascinating facts about the woman behind the verses. 

Howe was born on Bond Street and Broadway in New York City to an affluent, Calvinist family; when she was five, her mother died in childbirth. She was educated in a home with its own library and art gallery and well-propertied for a secure future. Her heroic but controlling husband stymied her spirit and mishandled her land holdings.

Once Howe recovered her voice in the company of the New England Woman’s Club and Unitarianism, her mission became to free other women and gain the vote.

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Portrait of Julia Ward Howe by John Elliot

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Howe earned five dollars for the publication of “Battle Hymn”

“Battle of Hymn of the Republic” was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862.

Howe claimed that a minister friend goaded her to write new verses to the marching song “John Brown’s Body” as the two watched Union soldiers go by in Washington, D. C.  Once her hymn became popular and was performed almost everywhere in the North, it provided celebrity and a platform for her causes. 

She repeatedly told of how the verses came to her fully formed and that she had risen to write them in semi-darkness. She answered the many requests over her lifetime for handwritten verses to be used as fundraisers.

 

An early nickname tells her style

Suitors called her “Diva.” She expected esteem. She was undeterred once her mind was set.

Once, she charmed herself onto the caboose of a freight train when she missed the passenger one and needed to keep an engagement; she once hugged a post on a pitching ship to deliver an address she had promised. She could act the “belle” well into her sixties and was indefatigable into her ninety-first year.  When she gave her support, she overcame obstacles with courage, wit, and benignity.

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Southern Ladies and Suffragists by Miki Pfeffer on Amazon*

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Her first volume of poetry was provocative for its time

Passion-Flowers (1853) was expressive in ways that seemed inappropriate during True Womanhood when piety, purity, and domesticity were expected, especially of married women.

The collection was published anonymously, but her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, was blindsided by it and appalled by its intimacies. Longfellow and Margaret Fuller encouraged her poetry.

 

Housekeeping and motherhood were not her strong suits

She raised five children to adulthood (she lost one son at four) but always demanded “precious time” for study (“PT” to her children). Each pregnancy depressed her, and marriage and motherhood did not fulfill her.

Her husband judged her inept and hired consecutive housekeepers, some of whom were patients from the Perkins School for the Blind, which he founded.

When Samuel Gridley Howe died in 1876, his estate went to their offspring, not to Julia. Her eldest brother, Sam Ward, bought her the house on Beacon St. in Boston. In widowhood, she was most free to pursue her causes, but she worried she might leave debts for her children.

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Leadership was her true calling

She was the perpetual president of the Association for the Advancement of Women and the New England Woman’s Club and an editor of its Woman’s Journal. She also helped edit her husband’s abolitionist paper, The Commonwealth.

She was a leader in the American Woman Suffrage Association, the state-centered movement for suffrage, and was active when that group merged with the federal push for a Constitutional amendment and became the NAWSA. The Nineteenth passed too late for Howe to vote.

She also called on mothers to demand world peace and envisioned a Mother’s Day for that purpose.

 

She promoted suffrage, equality, and “women’s work” when she went to the South

As president of the first Woman’s Department (white) at a World’s Fair in the South, Howe helped open minds to suffrage, as did visiting activists like Susan B. Anthony.

At the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans in 1884-85, she led women to consider higher education, new jobs, suffrage, and transitions in “women’s work.”

She met with representatives of the Colored Ladies Exposition Committee and spoke to audiences in the Colored Department and at two Black universities in New Orleans during her six-month stay. She heard her “Battle Hymn” played and sung at those events.

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She brought literature and journalism to the Cotton Centennial Exposition

Howe tasked her youngest daughter to create a library in the Woman’s Department. Maud Howe amassed over a thousand books, magazines, and newspapers written or edited by women, and she donated 800 books to a circulating library in New Orleans at the end of the fair.

Howe invited a hundred women of the press to cover the fair and the Woman’s Department.

While in the city, she revived a lagging literary club (the Pan Gnostics) and helped members to research, write, present, edit, and publish their works. At least one woman’s career began in that club  — Grace King— and other careers were advanced under her leadership.

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You might also enjoy: A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain’s Court

Letters from Grace King’s New England Sojourns by Miki Pfeffer

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There was nothing small about her but her size

The redhead was less than five feet tall, but her ambition, determination, wit, and accomplishments were outsized. She arranged her own engagements all over the country and was still trying to do so into her ninety-first year. In forty-four years of journals (lodged in Houghton at Harvard), she logged worries, triumphs, and whereabouts and with-whom.

 

She could draw a crowd as large as Emerson’s when she lectured

Like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Howe spoke at Bronson Alcott’s School of Philosophy in Concord, Mass. The building is behind Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women and other popular books.

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The life story of Julia Ward Howe won the first Pulitzer award for biography in 1917

Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910 by daughters Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott, assisted by Florence Howe Hall, won that first prize for biography, autobiography, or memoir. In 1899, Howe had published her Reminiscences 1819–1899  and also wrote the biography, Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli) in 1883.

 

Contributed by  Miki Pfeffer

Miki Pfeffer received the 2015 Eudora Welty Prize for Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women’s Rights in the 1884 New Orleans World Fair. Miki is a visiting scholar at Nicholls State University and also the author of A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain’s Court: Letters from Grace King’s New England Sojourns.

Sources

Howe, Julia Ward. Reminiscences 1819-1899. Reprinted New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.

Pfeffer, Miki. Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women’s Rights in the 1884 New Orleans World Fair. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015

Richards, Laura E. and Maud Howe Elliott. Julia Ward Howe 1819-1910. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.

Showalter, Elaine. The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Williams, Gary. Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

Ziegler, Valerie. Diva Julia: The Public Romance and Private Agony of Julia Ward Howe. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press, 2003.

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*This is an Amazon Affiliate link. If the product is purchased by linking through, Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West (1931)

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West, a 1931 novel, was one of this British author’s most popular works. Its major theme is that of gaining control over one’s own life, and it also addresses the constrictions of class and gender.

We meet Lady Slane, who has lived her adult life as the dutiful wife of a powerful politician and a respectable mother.  Her husband having just passed away, she’s already well into in her eighties but determined to live out her remaining days to their fullest.

From the publisher of the 2017 Vintage Classics edition:

“Irreverently funny and surprisingly moving, All Passion Spent is the story of a woman who discovers who she is just before it is too late.

After the death of elder statesman Lord Slane—a former prime minister of Great Britain and viceroy of India—everyone assumes that his eighty-eight-year-old widow will slowly fade away in her grief, remaining as proper, decorative, and dutiful as she has been her entire married life.

But the deceptively gentle Lady Slane has other ideas. First she defies the patronizing meddling of her children and escapes to a rented house in Hampstead. There, to her offspring’s utter amazement, she revels in her new freedom, recalls her youthful ambitions, and gathers some very unsuitable companions—who reveal to her just how much she had sacrificed under the pressure of others’ expectations.”

Vita Sackville-West (1892 – 1962 ) lived an unconventional life, marching to her own drummer. Born to great wealth, she and her husband, the diplomat Harold Nicolson, were both bisexual and gave one another the freedom to pursue other relationships. Yet they had a happy home and family, raising two sons. Vita was part of the storied Bloomsbury circle, which included her great friend Virginia Woolf.

Her work is no longer read as avidly as it was during her lifetime, yet it remains well respected. Here is an American review of All Passion Spent, typical of its positive reception both in her home country and abroad.

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You may also enjoy: The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West

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A 1931 review of All Passion Spent

From the original review  of All Passion Spent in the Indianapolis Star-Sun, November, 1931: Here is a winter’s tale that must not be spoiled for the reader by too much criticism or fanfare, both of which often prejudice a prospective reader before the book is opened.

But chances are, before you’ve read many pages, you’ll find yourself in sympathy with the elderly Lady Slane. After almost seventy years of conforming to every wish of her just-deceased husband, she decides to live her remaining years to her own liking, “calm of mind, all passion spent.”

Immediately, the author also enlists you agains all the conspiring children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who had planned Lady Slane’s life after the manner of the offspring. They keep her among them, an unwilling and somewhat unwelcome guest.

But Lady Slane, for the first time in her eighty-eight years, made up her own mind. With her French maid, only a few years younger than herself, she betakes them to a house in Hampstead, kept in remembrance by her for thirty years. There it was, waiting, idle, as if it had some secret understanding with her.

Heart craved quiet, privacy

To this place of retirement her own children might come occasionally, but no grandchildren, and certainly not the great-grandchildren. Her life constantly in the public eye, as wife of a Viceroy to India and later prime minister, had been a strenuous one.

Now all she asked of life was that it pass her by. It pleased her to steep herself in old age. It was to be her one holiday from social publicity. Her heart craved only a small taste of quiet and privacy.

Much of the story concerns itself in establishing Lady Slane in her home, peculiarly fitted for the retirement she so desired. The great peace that came to her, “sitting there in the sun at Hamstead, in the late summer, under the south wall and the ripened peaches” steals into the heart of the reader.

It makes this reader, at least, almost eager to be eighty-eight, when one can at last step aside and meditate on the life that has been lived.

Lady Slane’s life was particularly rich in memories. This reader is delighted to go back with her over her years — what was and what might have been. As with all of us, life had played strange pranks with her, but romance was always kept in sight.

Three institutions

But life even in its twilight could not pass her by. It’s true that as the story is being told, Lady Slane enjoys a brief interlude of contentment, free from intruders and family disturbance. But three old gentlemen gain entry into her home, each for his own particular reason.

There was Mr. Bucktrout, the agent for the house, who felt privileged to come to tea every Tuesday afternoon, and as many times in between as the occasion permitted. Then there was Mr. Gosheron, the contractor, who looked after the repairs and was highly respected, in spite of his always wearing his hat in the house. The third was Mr. Fitzgeorge, who had known Lady Slane in India more than fifty years before.

How these three, all old, eccentric, and unworldly had populated her remote life now at its close, was a bit fantastic to Lady Slane, and in spite of her years, she thoroughly enjoyed the intrusion. For the first time in her life she was freed from pretense.

The strife and pride and living were stripped away and she was able to look at her own desires squarely in the face. She said exactly what she was thinking to the three gentlemen.

Just so, she began to belatedly discover her true self — from whom she was abruptly swept away when her marriage was arranged, and she abandoned her fond ambitions to be an artist and carve out a career for herself.

The understanding and sympathy Lady Slane is suddenly about to show her great-granddaughter Deborah, who is confronted with the same problem she faced in her own girlhood. The comfort that the two of them experience in their talk at the end of the book is Lady Slane’s last bit of happiness on the earthly plane, and would seem a fitting close to a remarkable life — frustrated and then reclaimed after hearts less stout would have proclaimed it too late.

Delicate situation well handled

It is, then, not the story of a tedious old lady, but of an ageless woman. No note of resignation enters into the narrative. All is quiet, even tinged with a little glamour, freedom, independence, romance, and the putting away of trivialities.

The nature of the story is such that it requires a deft touch to handle delicate situations, and Miss Sackville-West has proven herself equal to the task.

Surely the reader will derive a vicarious joy in Lady Slane’s retreat from life. This is the book’s chief hold upon us. We’re all running away  at times, a bit weary of this great world. There’s rest in this story for the earth-bound. There’s also a quiet beauty and the subtlest of charm.

And there is an infinite deal of writing between the lines. Could each of us have as peaceful and colorful a journey’s end, and go as gracefully as did Lady Slane! No doubt it takes a rich life to add so much of grace and beauty to death.

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All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West on Amazon*

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More about All Passion Spent

Reader discussion on Goodreads
Wikipedia
A review on The Australian Legend

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*This is an Amazon Affiliate link. If the product is purchased by linking through, Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier (1931)

Daphne du Maurier (1907 – 1989), the prolific British novelist, playwright, and short story writer started her publishing career at age twenty two with her first novel, The Loving Spirit (1931).

The title was inspired by the name of a poem by Emily Brontë. It’s well known that du Maurier was greatly inspired by the Brontë sisters; her masterwork, Rebecca (1938), has echoes of Jane Eyre.

Beginning in the early 1800s, The Loving Spirit tells the story of the Coombes family, and is mainly set in Cornwall, a part of England in which the author spent much of her life. Janet Coombes marries her cousin, Thomas Coombes, who is a shipbuilder. The novel follows the adventures and trials of this family for four generations.

A fascinating fact: The Loving Spirit captured the attention of a young British army major, Frederick A.M. “Boy” Browning. Resolving to meet the author, and traveled to Paris to find her. They met the following year, and married a few months later in 1932.

The Loving Spirit was well received and launched what would be a stellar career. This and Daphne du Maurier’s subsequent novels and stories have all offered the reader rich detail, with elements of romance and intrigue. Since her work shaded into the realm of popular fiction in their time, they were sometimes criticized as lacking in depth or intellect, a view that has since been revised.

From the 2003 Time-Warner Books UK edition:

“Cornwall, 1900s. Plyn Boat Yard is a hive of activity, and Janet Coombe longs to share in the excitement of seafaring: to travel, to have adventures, to know freedom. But constrained by the times, instead she marries her cousin Thomas, a boat builder, and settles down to raise a family.

Janet’s loving spirit — the passionate yearning for adventure and for love — is passed down to her son, and through him to his children’s children. As generations of the family struggle against hardship and loss, their intricately plotted history is set against the greater backdrop of war and social change in Britain.

Her debut novel established du Maurier’s reputation and style with an inimitable blend of romance, history and adventure.”

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You might also enjoy: Jamaica Inn (1936) by Daphne du Maurier

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A 1931 review of The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier

From the original review in the Province Sun, November 1, 1931: Rebecca West, in her criticism of this book, describes it as “a whopper of a romantic novel in the vein of Emily Brontë.” That it is. It is also in the vein of George du Maurier, grandfather of the authoress; it’s also a legitimate descendant of Peter Ibbetson.

It will be something of a relief to anyone who is wearied with the intense psychological exactitudes of modern fiction to plunge into a tale so romantic and full of life, because, apart from satisfying the average intelligent person’s instinct —the instinct that announces itself very early in life — romance is kin to poetry, and in poetry can be found here and there a flash of insight that penetrates through and beyond the muddle of everyday life.

This book contains the curious blend of instinct, knowledge, and intuition that marks the genuine teller of tales. As the first novel by a young writer, it foretells a future of pleasurable prospects.

“Please God, make me a lad afore I’m grown,” was Janet Coombe’s early prayer, but no miracle happened. She remained a girl — restless and hoydenish, with a loving, unsatisfied spirit — mad an affectionate and successful marriage with her cousin, Thomas Coombe, and bore him six children. This was in 1830 and subsequent years.

Of these children, Samuel and Mary, the two oldest, and Herbert, the fourth, were hard-working, estimable souls, just like their father. Joseph, the third child, was twin spirit with his mother. Philip, the fifth child, was a stranger in the family. Elizabeth, the sixth, was a happy blend of both parents.

Here Miss du Maurier shows her powers. She recognizes the law of polarity. The violent cleaving of spirit to spirit, the very closeness of the tie between Janet and Joseph sets up a counterbalancing force.

Desiring above all things spiritual union with some one person and finding it only in her second son, Janet herself gives birth to his destroyer. Philip, her fourth son, from his childhood to his old age, when Joseph’s grandchild is all that is left to remind him closely of the past, goes his secret way to smash the loving transmissible spirit from whose warmth he feels himself shut out.

Christopher, Joseph’s son, feels the weight of his Uncle Philip’s hatred. Jennifer, Christopher’s daughter, almost dies of it. The good nonentities of the family are swept aside into bewildered poverty by it. It remains for Elizabeth, her excellent husband and their son and grandson to throw in their weight, and the end of the book finds the loving spirt of the time being at rest from its violent journeying.

There is a great quality of courage here; the tale is cast in a large mold. With a feeling of personal exile, the reader is dragged into London for a time, but the main events happen in Cornwall, on the coast, where the English Channel starts at one end of its stormy passage between the Atlantic and the North Sea. They could not be placed more suitably.

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The Loving Spirit on Amazon*

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Quotes from The Loving Spirit

“She gave to both Thomas and Samuel her natural spontaneity of feeling and a great simplicity of heart; but the spirit of Janet was free and unfettered, waiting to rise from its self-enforced seclusion to mingle with intangible things, like the wind, the sea, and the skies, hand in hand with the one for whom she waited. Then she, too, would become part of these things forever, abstract and immortal.”

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“Dust unto dust. There was no reason then for life—it was only a fraction of a moment between birth and death, a movement upon the surface of water, and then it was still. Janet had loved and suffered, she had known beauty and pain, and now she was finished—blotted by the heedless earth, to be no more than a few dull letters on a stone.”

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“Though Thomas liked to think he had his own way over things, it was generally Janet who had the last say in the matter. She would fling a word at her husband and no more, and he would go off to his work with an uneasy feeling at the back of his mind that she had won. He called it ‘giving in to Janie,’ but it was more than that, it was unconscious subservience to a quieter but stronger personality than his own.”

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“The child destined to be a writer is vulnerable to every wind that blows. Now warm, now chill, next joyous, then despairing, the essence of his nature is to escape the atmosphere about him, no matter how stable, even loving. No ties, no binding chains, save those he forges for himself.

Or so he thinks. But escape can be delusion, and what he is running from is not the enclosing world and its inhabitants, but his own inadequate self that fears to meet the demands which life makes upon it. Therefore create. Act God. Fashion men and women as Prometheus fashioned them from clay, and, by doing this, work out the unconscious strife within and be reconciled.”

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More about The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier

On the Daphne du Maurier official website
Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads

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*This is an Amazon Affiliate link. If the product is purchased by linking through, Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield (1924)

An ahead-of-its-time novel, The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (at the time known as Dorothy Canfield), published in 1924 by Harcourt, Brace & Co., imagined a domestic role-reversal.

Quite a rare set of circumstances to consider in its time, the mother and farther of the Knapp family were both going through the motions of their proscribed societal gender roles. An accident forced them to reverse roles out of practicality, and coming out of that adversity, a family found strength and happiness.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879 – 1958) was an American author, educational reformer, and social activist based in New England and identified most closely with Vermont. She earned a Ph.D in 1905, was able to speak five languages, and worked for the cause of refugees in Europe.

Canfield Fisher’s body of work included 22 novels and some 18 works of nonfiction. Some of her best known novels included The Brimming Cup, Rough-Hewn, Raw Material, Her Son’s Wife,The Deepening Stream, and Understood Betsy. She was also a prolific author of nonfiction and essays. 

 

From the publisher of the Audible edition of The Home-Maker

Evangeline Knapp’s neighbors are in awe of her prowess. She re-upholsters furniture and can take scraps of fabric and create a beautiful garment. Her house is always immaculate and her children are beautifully behaved – except for the stubborn youngest, but with Eva’s strength of will, they’re certain she’ll sort him out in time.

The neighbors don’t know that in her frenzied zeal to create the perfect home, her children live in dread of her temper. She loves them, but she can’t stand having to remind them constantly about the same things, simple rules easy enough for anyone to understand. Eva can’t abide childishness.

Her husband Lester is no less miserable in his job as a department store accountant, sacrificing his love of literature and poetry to the daily grind of commerce. Lester can’t seem to get ahead and feels like a failure. Shouldn’t a man be able to provide better for his family? Isn’t that his job? When a near fatal accident forces these two to switch roles, each finds their true calling. Then fate steps in again.

As with her children’s classic Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher brilliantly explores the inner lives not only of the parents but the three Knapp children. An early champion of the Montessori Method, the author stresses that children should learn by doing, should be allowed to fail at tasks so they can experience the triumph of success and discover their strengths. The Home-Maker proves that the same holds true for adults, that biology should not determine destiny.

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See also: Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

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A 1924 review of The Home-maker by Dorothy Canfield 

From the original review in the Austin-American Statesman, August 24, 1924: It would be unjust to dismiss Dorothy Canfield’s new novel, “The Home-maker,” with the bare statement that it is merely another novel about the dissatisfied modern woman.

Out of a flood of such novels, however, there is some satisfaction in discovering one that delves into the subject from an entirely new angle and brings to light an entirely different opinion. In this case the author has solved her problem, and is probably justified in doing so because the characters themselves justify a solution.

Lester Knapp is an ordinary bookkeeper who hates his work, hates his associates, and hates the very air of commercialism. He is incompetent because he is a dreamer and has no interest whatsoever in his work. There was a time when he wrote poetry, and he still possesses that dreamer’s interest in aesthetic beauty.

He is a misfit. and simply does not possess the prerequisites that might assist him to an adjustment to his environment. Dreaming of the luxury of having nothing to do but sit back and read poetry and be carried away by its beauty. and chafing under the strain of never having an opportunity to indulge this desire.

Lester Knapp, through a change in the management and ownership of the establishment where he is employed, sees the promotion of a man who is a sort of rival. Going home he contemplates ending his life; his predicament is solved tor him when a neighbors’ house catches on fire. During the confusion, Lester falls from the root and is carried home, hurt and helpless.

Eva Knapp, Letser’s wife, is equally dissatisfied with the trials of home life. Her husband’s accident to husband opens the way tor her to seek a means of livelihood in the world of business. She gets a position in the establishment where her husband was formerly employed, and her delight with the work, coupled with her unusual character, brings rapid promotion and satisfaction to her.

Now forced to stay home and confined to a wheelchair, Lester becomes for the first time truly interested in the children. He studies them — their desires, their needs, and their interests. He strives to become a companion to them, and is surprised at the resulting revelations that unfold — not only about his children, but about himself.

He also makes a study of housekeeping. He prefers this new occupation, and for the first time since his college days finds time to enjoy poetry. Where he had made a failure his wife makes a success; and where she had been for the most part a failure, he had made a success.

The climax of these new circumstances comes when the family physican says that he can cure Lester of his malady. But Lester has already discovered that fact for himself and has rebelled at the very thought of being cure because he knows it means he will have to go back to the world of commerce. Conventions, after all, must be satisfied; the man of the family must be the breadwinner.

Eva does not want him to be cured, for she knows that it would mean her return to the drudgery of home life. Even the children, Helen, Henry, and little Stephen, do not want to lose the wonderful companionship of their father, which has come to mean so much to them.

The outcome of this entanglement is admirably and dramatically handled by Dorothy Canfield. The author has an uncanny way of making everything work out. That’s really the only disagreeable feature of the novel. By turning everything precisely around, all the difficulties of the Knapp family are too neatly, and completely, resolved.

For the rest, the novel is truly admirable. The characters are superbly drawn. Eva is, as one female reader remarked, exactly like dozens of women she knows. Anyone who understands the spirit of a poetic nature understands Lester Knapp. And, perhaps best of all. the author knows children and understands them. Her portrait of the Knapp children is admirable and touching.

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The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield on Amazon*

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*This is an Amazon Affiliate link. If the product is purchased by linking through, Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier (1957)

The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier, published in 1957, was one of the British author’s successful mid-career novels, coming after Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, and My Cousin Rachel. and In her skillful hands, this suspense novel makes an ingenious doppelgänger plot work on many levels.

In brief, it’s the story of a disaffected Englishman and an aristocratic Frenchman who meet by an accidental encounter and are at once struck by how much they resemble one another. John, an English academic, is compelled by Count Jean de Gué into switching places with him. What ensues is how he is swept into the count’s complicated intrigues and family life.

From the 1957 Doubleday edition:

 

Someone jolted my elbow as I drank and said, ‘Je vous demande pardon,’ and as I moved to give him space he turned and stared at me and I at him, and I realized, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were known to me too well. I was looking at myself.”

The Englishman and the Frenchman continue to inspect each other — astounded that they could look so alike and not have known of each other’s existence before this moment. The problems that each had considered so vital before that instant of uncanny recognition were forgotten as they began to talk …

It was not until the next day when he awoke that John, the Englishman, realized he had talked too much. His French companion was gone; John had been trapped into taking the place of the Comte de Gué, head of a large family — master of a château.

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See also: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

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Not since Rebecca has Daphne du Maurier written a novel so full of the sense of mounting excitement,  of a “wanting to know what is going to happen.”

Loaded with suspense and crackling wit, The Scapegoat has a double fascination: John’s manipulations to escape detection by the Comte’s large family, his servants, his mistresses; and his constant and frustrating attempts to discover that enigmatic evil that dominates all who live within the Château — without asking the questions that would give him away.

Beneath the surface of this immensely exciting plot, Miss du Maurier has filled her novel with human significance. The Scapegoat is eminently readable and profoundly moving —a reading adventure you will long remember.

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The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier on Amazon*
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A 1957 review of The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier

From the original review in the Akron Beacon Journal, February 17, 1957: It couldn’t actually happen in real life (or could it?) but Daphne du Maurier’s skill makes The Scapegoat a plausible perplexity.

The Scapegoat is the tale of one man who was trapped into impersonating another, living as husband of a saddened wife, father of a fanciful child, manager of a glass-making concern, and son of an aging, dope-addled mother.

All of the action takes place within one week, yet so much is learned of the past that the book seems to span a generation.

The tale opens in a French village. An Englishman, John, is slightly jostled, looks up, and finds himself “with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined … looking at myself.” The two men, equally startled, walk over to look into a mirror together.

“It was no chance resemblance — no superficial likeness — it was as though one man stood there.”

John then was mulling the idea of seeking a brief retreat in a monastery to learn how he should go on living. He was a casual lecturer on the French historic and literary past, without family or ties. He felt himself a failure. This lack of useful affection concerned him.

His alter ego, Jean de Gue, was a count with a castle he didn’t care for, a marriage he called a trap, “too many possessions — human ones.” The ate an drank together, the wily Frenchman feeling out his double.

The next morning, John woke in a hotel room, the valise of Count De Gué nearby, a solicitous chauffeur waiting to take “his master” home despite protestations. Evidently, Jean was unwilling to go home. There was no evidence that John was other than the count. He began to try to live the role.

Du Maurier’s skill creates as much suspense in The Scapegoat as it did in Rebecca. Her characters are linked by dependency, hostilely, old hatreds, and money. Carefully, John listens and digests remarks, cautious not to denounce the absent Jean and so reveal himself to this accepting family.

Time and again he finds himself in a position in which he can’t act, either from ignorance nor from temperament, as Jean would have. Ultimately, it’s a story of two opposites who are similar. It’s a fascinating premise and that the author succeeds at presenting in a most satisfying way.

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Quotes from The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier

“My realisation that all I had ever done in life, not only in France but in England also, was to watch people, never to partake in their happiness or pain, brought such a sense of overwhelming depression, deepened by the rain stinging the windows of the car, that when I came to Le Mans, although I had not intended to stop there and lunch, I changed my mind, hoping to change my mood.”

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“I could not ask for forgiveness for something I had not done. As scapegoat, I could only bear the fault.”

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“Years of study, years of training, the fluency with which I spoke their language, taught their history, described their culture, had never brought me closer to the people themselves.”

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“Do you know so little about children, Monsieur Jean,’ she asked, ‘that you imagine, because they don’t cry, therefore they feel nothing? If so, you’re much mistaken.”

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“Gaston’s wife, who wept upon the instant, said to me, ‘Death is beautiful. Madame Jean might be an angel in the sky.’ I did not agree. Death was an executioner, lopping a flower before it bloomed. The sky had glories enough, but not the soil.”

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“The good monks are waiting upon eternity, they can wait a few more hours for you.”

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“One had no right to play about with people’s lives. One should not interfere with their emotions. A word, a look, a smile, a frown, did something to another human being, waking response or aversion, and a web was woven which had no beginning and no end, spreading outward and inward too, merging, entangling, so that the struggle of one depended upon the struggle of the other.”

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See also: Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

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More about The Scapegoat

Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads
The Scapegoat (1959 film)
Review of The Scapegoat on Tor.com

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The Reef by Edith Wharton (1912)

The Reef by Edith Wharton, published in 1912, came more or less in the middle of her novel-writing career. It came after the triumph of The House of Mirth and before her Pulitzer Prize-winning turn with The Age of Innocence.

The author herself wasn’t pleased with this book, writing her regrets over it to a friend not long after its publication, describing it as a “poor miserable lifeless lump,” and vowed that next time she was “going to do something worthwhile!”

Some critics tended to agree with Wharton’s self-assessment. The New York Sun’s review called The Reef “a bitter, disheartening, sordid story and we could wish that Mrs. Wharton would look on brighter and nobler aspects of life.”

From the publisher of a later edition, the 1996 Alfred A. Knopf / Borzoi edition of The Reef: 

Edith Wharton was at the height of her enormous literary powers when she published The Reef in 1912, and everything about this novel suggests a mastery so complete that it can achieve nothing higher.

The plot, which tells of the drastic effects of a casual sexual betrayal on the lives of four Americans in France, is expertly turned, suspenseful, continually compelling. An assured, unhurried dramatic instincts governs the great moments of confrontation and revelation.

The central characters, two of whom are innocents and two of whom are burdened by experience and tinged with desperation, are perfectly delineated: their relationships to one another are constructed with a classical feeling for harmony, proportion, and balance.

And the entire novel is imbued with clear-eyed wisdom about the possibilities and limitations of human love. Wharton would go on to write splendid books after completing The Reef, but nowhere does she display a finer command of her art than she does here.

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See Also:  Ethan Frome (1911)

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The Reef, while not a roman à clef, did reflect in its themes a difficult period in Wharton’s own love life. She had fallen passionately in love with Morton Fullerton, a passion that wasn’t always returned, and discovered that her dissolute husband Teddy was carrying on affairs during their unhappy and sexless marriage. The two women in the novel, Sophy and Anna, are thought to represent different aspects of Wharton.

“Life’s just a perpetual piecing together of broken bits” is a line that jumps out from the novel. Edith Wharton, despite the privileged world she occupied, was still entitled to feel and describe this universal observation.

Not all reviewers were as unhappy as those quoted above, nor the author herself. Here is one such review from London, which is, if not glowing, then certainly quite positive.

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The Reef by Edith Wharton on Amazon*

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A 1913 review of The Reef by Edith Wharton

From The Observer-Sun (London), January 1913:  The high standards which Mrs. Wharton has set herself in fiction are not deserted in this moving drama — for drama it is and with no slight tincture of genuine tragic strength and dignity. Its theme is the essential matter of all tragedy — the persistence of consequences after we may have forgotten, or indeed, repented, the act the produced them.

All the characters are American, although the scene lies in France. If there is any check to the appreciation of English readers it will perhaps be found in the excessive self-centeredness of the American woman in who’s mind the emotions of the book find their chief battleground.

There is nothing far-fetched in the circumstances that bring to the shattered young widow, Anna Leath, to the crises of her heart and life. She has mixed emotions about her suitor, George Dunnow, an American diplomat who lives in London, and thus, puts him off when he wishes to come to her.

When the pair finally agree to meet, George embarks on a boat to travel from Dover to Paris. While on board, his attention is caught by a young women Sophy Viner.

Sophy is one of those friendless governesses who aspires to greater things — to be an actress in her case — who haven’t had their brightness yet quenched by constant struggle. She’s just the kind of young woman whose candor and capacity for pleasure would prove attractive to a generous and well-meaning young man.

George takes it upon himself to show Sophy around Paris. Their few days’ companionship develops into a romantic liaison — transient, it’s true, and on the man’s side at any rate, quickly dismissed from the mind.

Some months later we find George a the chateau of Anna Leath, where, to his consternation, Sophy is all-too-coincidentally installed as the governess of Anna’s daughter, his future stepdaughter. Sophy, abashed, begs George not to reveal their erstwhile fling, as she doesn’t wish to lose her position.

Even worse, Sophy is engaged to Anna’s grown stepson Owen — a situation involving  complications sufficiently disturbing even to a professional diplomat.

But George Dunnow’s anxious analysis of his own duty to each of the entangled parties is soon superseded by Anna’s gradual realization of the truth. To a refined nature, the clash between love and repulsion is staggering. Anna never before realized what the great impulses of life were beneath the placid surface of convention.

Everything in Anna’s personal composition — primitive or acquired, passionate  or fastidious — combined to plunge her into a turmoil of bewilderment and pain.

Sophy breaks off with Owen, who departs from Spain. Anna is left to her jealousy and insecurity. Sophy moves to India. It is all rather a mess.

The fluctuations of this agony are delineated with real power. Mrs. Wharton’s wit is riveting, and the mix of strain and fascination is almost theatrical. The climax is weakened by some abruptness and obscurity, but the story as a whole keeps the reader at a high level of interest.

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You may also enjoy: The Custom of the Country

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How The Reef begins …

Here is a portion of Chapter 1:

“Unexpected obstacle. Please don’t come till thirtieth. Anna.”

All the way from Charing Cross to Dover the train had hammered the words of the telegram into George Darrow’s ears, ringing every change of irony on its commonplace syllables: rattling them out like a discharge of musketry, letting them, one by one, drip slowly and coldly into his brain, or shaking, tossing, transposing them like the dice in some game of the gods of malice; and now, as he emerged from his compartment at the pier, and stood facing the wind- swept platform and the angry sea beyond, they leapt out at him as if from the crest of the waves, stung and blinded him with a fresh fury of derision.

“Unexpected obstacle. Please don’t come till thirtieth. Anna.”

She had put him off at the very last moment, and for the second time: put him off with all her sweet reasonableness, and for one of her usual “good” reasons–he was certain that this reason, like the other, (the visit of her husband’s uncle’s widow) would be “good”!

But it was that very certainty which chilled him. The fact of her dealing so reasonably with their case shed an ironic light on the idea that there had been any exceptional warmth in the greeting she had given him after their twelve years apart.

They had found each other again, in London, some three months previously, at a dinner at the American Embassy, and when she had caught sight of him her smile had been like a red rose pinned on her widow’s mourning.

He still felt the throb of surprise with which, among the stereotyped faces of the season’s diners, he had come upon her unexpected face, with the dark hair banded above grave eyes; eyes in which he had recognized every little curve and shadow as he would have recognized, after half a life-time, the details of a room he had played in as a child.

And as, in the plumed starred crowd, she had stood out for him, slender, secluded and different, so he had felt, the instant their glances met, that he as sharply detached himself for her. All that and more her smile had said; had said not merely “I remember,” but “I remember just what you remember”; almost, indeed, as though her memory had aided his, her glance flung back on their recaptured moment its morning brightness …

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More about The Reef by Edith Wharton

Study Guide and Critical Commentary
Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads
Full text on Project Gutenberg

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Film Adaptations of 17 Classic Children’s Novels by Women Authors

It’s fun and fascinating to watch film adaptations of classic children’s novels. Does the cast of characters match how you imagined them while reading? Is the film true to the book, or does it depart too much?

It’s a good idea to read a book first before seeing a film adaptation. That way, the cinematic visuals and actors don’t interfere with your imagination. Who can ever read the Harry Potter books again without picturing Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and the rest of the actors in the film series?

Film and television adaptations can be helpful for kids who aren’t big on reading. In those cases, having them watch the movie first might be a way to get them more excited about reading the book it’s based on. Then, comparing the film and written versions might spark lively discussions.

For adults who have somehow missed reading certain classic children’s books and don’t want to invest the time (so many books to read, so little time …), the film adaptations can be a way to at least become familiar with classic stories. Though as I’ll point out, some adaptations are much better than others.

Once you’ve watched any book-to-movie adaptation, though, you may want to explore how the film differs from the original material. After all, they are interpretations, and often take liberties. I’d hate to consider that viewers of “Anne with an E,” which was presented on Netflix, for example, would think that this series reflects the spirit of the books. It doesn’t, but we’ll get to that later.

And now to the list of films based on books intentionally written for children. Many of their film counterparts are meant for audiences of all ages. For more films based on classics by women authors, see this site’s Filmography.

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101 Dalmatians

The 101 Dalmatians (originally published as The Hundred and One Dalmatians) by Dodie Smith was published as a book for young readers in 1956. The story of Dalmatians Pongo and Missis, and the Dearlys (their humans), became an instant classic. The intrigue, carried to the screen, involves Cruella de Vil and her plot to steal the Dalmatian puppies and make coats out of them.

The story’s screen debut was a 1961 animated film produced by Disney. The 1996 live-action remake starring Glenn Close as Cruella received mixed reviews; many critics called the remake pointless. Audiences felt differently, apparently, and there was enough interest to release a sequel in 2000 titled 102 Dalmatians. Once again, audiences seemed happier with the film than the critics, and it did well at the box office.

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A Little Princess

The classic tale by Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess  was published in full in 1905 after first appearing as the novella Sara Crewe and then being serialized.  It tells the story of Sara, the daughter of a wealthy man who is indeed treated like a little princess upon her arrival at a posh English boarding school. But when her father goes missing, she is kept on at the school as a charity case, compelled to work as a servant.

Though Sara is abused by the headmistress and tormented by her fellow students, she holds her head high. The story of courage and kindness has resonated with audiences for generations and has been filmed several times, including the 1939 tearjerker (The Little Princess) starring Shirley Temple, a 1986 mini-series, and a lavishly produced 1995 film.

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A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 classic fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time, written for middle grade and up, blends religion, philosophy, mathematics, satire, and allegory. What’s surprising is that the prolific author had quite a hard time finding a publisher for it — editors thought that the exploration of good and evil was too dark and difficult for children. But in effect, the success of L’Engle’s work paved the way for related works like the Harry Potter series.

Wrinkle was first made into a 2003 television film that got mostly negative reviews. 2018’s star-studded remake, starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling didn’t fare much better, though it was commended for casting a Black actress in the role of the lovably nerdy heroine, Meg Murry. Fans of the book were generally disappointed in this film; I list it here because of all the hype it received. The definitive adaptation of this beloved novel is yet to be made.

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Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables (1908) the first of many books by L.M. Montgomery and the start of a series, has been adapted to film numerous times.

“Anne with an E” — a 2017 adaptation for Netflix — received mixed reviews, and some viewers even panned it for its somewhat dystopian presentation of the Anne story. It was released at a time when the sunny original was needed more than ever.  One of the best versions is the 1985 two-part CBC series. 

Another beloved series by L.M. Montgomery is Emily of New Moon, yet another literary orphan who is sent to live with icy relatives in Prince Edward Island. Her character, a plucky girl who wants to be a writer, is one that the author identified with more than the more famous Anne.  This series of books was adapted to a multi-season television series starting in 1998.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find a way to stream the series without a subscription service, which is why I didn’t list it separately. You might see if you can find it at your local library system.

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Bedknobs and Broomsticks

This movie title needs an explanation, since it wasn’t an actual book title, but rather, the name of the film, which combines two books by Mary Norton.

Her first novel, published in 1943, was The Magic Bed-Knob; Or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons. The books tell the story of three young siblings in World War II London who embark on some fantastic adventures as they seek shelter from the Blitz.

This book and its sequel, Bonfires and Broomsticks, were very popular. Eventually, they were combined and adapted into the 1971 Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which won an Oscar for best special visual effects for its combining of live-action and animation. Despite mixed critical reviews, it was nominated for four other categories, which might hint at its crossover appeal to adults as well as children.

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Harriet the Spy

Harriet the Spy, the 1964 children’s novel by Louise Fitzhugh is set in Manhattan’s upper east side. Its 11-year-old heroine, Harriet M. Welsch, already knows that she wants to be a famous writer when she grows up.

To prepare for her ambitions, she keeps a notebook in which she records details of the world around her in minute detail — and which ultimately leads to big trouble. Harriet the Spy became an entertaining 1996 Nickelodeon film. 

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Heidi

Heidi, the story of an orphaned (of course!) little girl who lives in the Alps with her gruff grandfather and helps him tend goats, is a children’s classic by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, published in 1881. Heidi is taken to a distant city to become a companion to an invalid girl and longs to return to her home in the mountains.

Heidi has been adapted to film several times, the best known of which are the well-received 2015 Swiss-German film, and the 1937 version starring Shirley Temple. There are far too many adaptations of Heidi to discuss, here is a thorough, if  not complete list.

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Little Women

Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 classic, Little Women, was originally written as a “girl’s book” that she thought would be a throwaway. Of course, it has been beloved by generations of readers of all ages. And it has been adapted for film and television numerous times.

My personal favorite is the 1994 movie starring Winona Ryder as Jo March. Little Women has made a statement on the big screen numerous times, from the hit 1934 film starring Katherine Hepburn to the 2019 adaptation with Saoirse Ronan. I have a feeling the latest one won’t be the last.

For thoughtful commentary on  how the book’s film adaptations have been treated through the generations, see this video by Be Kind Rewind and this one from By the Book. They’re both excellent, and will make you want to watch all the adaptations, if only to compare them for yourself!

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Mary Poppins

One of the best-loved (if most understood) characters in children’s literature, Mary Poppins grew from a story that its author, P.L. (Pamela Lyndon) Travers made up while minding two young children.

If Mary Poppins brings to mind Julie Andrews’ portrayal of her in the 1964 film, you’ll be surprised by her portrayal in the books as a more prickly and complex character. Still, the 1964 film is an iconic Disney movie musical.

Late 2018 saw a cinematic revival with Mary Poppins Returns starring Emily Blunt in the title role and Lin Manuel Miranda in altered iterations of the roles created by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in the 1964 Mary Poppins film. The film, released in time for the holiday season, evidently brought more cheer to audiences than to critics. 

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National Velvet

National Velvet is the story of a horse-crazy fourteen-year-old girl, Velvet Brown, who trains her horse, Pi, in hopes of winning Britain’s Grand National steeplechase. The 1935 novel of the same name was successfully adapted to film in 1944 and featured the young Elizabeth Taylor in her first leading role.

National Velvet remains the best-known work by Enid Bagnold (1889 – 1991), the British author not otherwise associated with children’s literature.

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Pippi Longstocking

The original three books in the Pippi Longstocking series by Astrid Lindgren have made this Swedish author one of the world’s most-translated, with 144 million copies worldwide. The story plunges the reader into the adventures of Pippi, a nine-year-old pigtailed redhead with superhuman strength.

Pippi Longstocking was first made into a Swedish film in 1969, and was actually a compilation of the Swedish TV series episodes. It was released in the U.S. in 1973. Pippi in the South Seas debuted in 1970. The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, which came out in 1988, was a Swedish-American joint venture.

All of the films received mixed reviews from adult critics, though they’re fine — and fun — for kids. Still, it’s best to start with the hilarious books, which have been entertaining young readers for generations.

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Pollyanna

The 1913 novel Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (1868 – 1920)  is perhaps less familiar now than the lasting expression that grew from its sentimental story. The first film adaptation appeared in 1920 with Mary Pickford in the title role.

The 1960 Disney adaptation is the best known. Hayley Mills won a special Oscar for her portrayal of Pollyanna. The film departs in some significant ways from the book; still, it was a major box-office and critical success. More recently, Pollyanna was adapted into a 2003 made-for-TV film.

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The Railway Children

Until the railway children’s father was sent to prison they had lived a conventional existence — watched and looked after every moment of the day. But when the children came to live in Three Chimneys, all these things vanished. There were no modern conveniences at all, not even running water. But what child cares about such things? What was thrilling for the children was that there was no school and no one to look after them. 

In a nutshell, that’s the best-known book by E. Nesbit, the author of many imaginative books for children. Suprisingly, The Railway Children isn’t even better known, given that there have been several adaptations — two televisions series (1957 and 1968), and a few films, the most recent of which was in 2016. The 1970 film seems to be the most universally acclaimed.

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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

When Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm first came out in 1903, a reviewer wrote: “For anyone suffering with the blues one could not do better than to prescribe this last book of Kate Douglas Wiggin, with the certainty that it would effect a cure. The writer may have done better work than this, but surely she never created a more wholly delightful character than Rebecca.”

Rebecca was one of several literary orphan girls of the era, along with Anne of Green Gables and Pollyanna, who won the hearts of dour spinsters and entire towns. It was adapted to film several times — first as a 1917 silent movie, then  again in 1932, before emerging as a much-altered movie musical in 1938 starring Shirley Temple.

More recently, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was a 4-part television series that aired in 1978.

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The Borrowers

The Borrowers, the first of a series of books by Mary Norton (1903 – 1992) first published in Great Britain in 1952 and in the U.S. in 1954, the Borrowers are miniature humans who live behind the wainscoting or under the floors of big old houses. They survive by borrowing whatever it is they need, as their name implies.

The first film version of The Borrowers was released in 1997.  It’s loosely based on the book, rather than a faithful adaptation, and it received mixed reviews. A Japanese manga-style animated version of The Borrowers called The Secret World of Arrietty, with an all-star Western cast, came out in 2010.

In 2011, a British television film version of The Borrowers premiered. I suspect we haven’t seen the last of The Borrowers on the large and small screen, so it may be wise to read the books before exploring these or any future film adaptations!

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The Boxcar Children

Created by grammar school teacher Gertrude Chandler Warner, the original volume of The Boxcar Children was first published in 1924. It proved so popular that it grew into a series of more than 150 titles.

Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are four orphans who live in an abandoned train boxcar in the woods. They meet their grandfather, a kind and wealthy man, and when they move in with him, they keep the boxcar in the back yard to continue to use as a playhouse.

The Boxcar Children came out in 2014 as an animated film, followed by a sequel, The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island. Given the enduring popularity of the books, it’s rather surprising that a live-action film has yet to be made.

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The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden, the timeless 1911 tale by Frances Hodgson Burnett tells of  Mary Lennox, a sickly and neglected 10-year-old born to wealthy British parents in colonial India. After being orphaned, Mary is sent to England to live with her uncle in a mysterious house.

The tale follows Mary as she slowly sheds her sour demeanor after discovering a secret locked garden on the grounds of her uncle’s manor. She befriends Dickon, a free spirit who can communicate with animals, and Colin, her uncle’s son, a neglected and lonely invalid.

There were two minor film adaptations (one silent) before what is considered the definitive screen version of The Secret Garden  premiered in 1993. Rotten Tomatoes said that it “honors its classic source material with a well-acted, beautifully filmed adaptation that doesn’t shy from its story’s darker themes.”

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Katharine Graham, Legendary Publisher at The Washington Post

Katharine Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) is best remembered for her role as publisher and CEO of The Washington Post. She oversaw the newspaper’s involvement in the Pentagon Papers controversy and its investigation of the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon’s resignation in late 1974.

Born in New York City, Katharine Meyer was one of five children raised in a family of great wealth. Her father, Eugene Meyer, was a multimillionaire and businessman who was  Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve from 1930 – 1933. Her mother, Agnes Ernst Meyer, was a politically active educator.

Eugene Meyer left his work in private business and government service to buy and revive The Washington Post in 1933 when the paper was being sold at a bankruptcy sale. He worked to improve the newspaper and in time, it became known for its precise editorial quality and independent reporting. Agnes Meyer was involved in politics and welfare work and maintained social relationships with powerful men, including Thomas Mann (the German novelist and philanthropist) and Adlai Stevenson, the lawyer and politician.

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Young adulthood and marriage 

Katharine attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York from 1932 to 1936, and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1938. She briefly worked as a reporter for the San Francisco News before joining her father at the Washington Post. She began an editorial staff member and worked in circulation departments in the daily paper as well as the weekend supplement, the Sunday Post.

In 1940, Katharine married Philip Graham, a lawyer who clerked for Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court justice. Eugene Meyer made his son-in-law publisher of the Washington Post in 1946.

Katharine didn’t object, and as a product of her time, quietly assumed the role of wife and mother. The couple had four children: Elizabeth Weymouth, Donald, William, and Stephen Graham. She sacrificed her career in journalism to be able to raise her children.

Katharine and Philip Graham bought the voting stock of the corporation from Graham’s father in 1948, allowing them to vote on important decisions regarding the corporation’s operations.

Busy with her children, Katharine continued to stay away from the mass media corporation while her husband ran the Post. It was an intensely competitive time in the news business, and under Philip Graham’s authority, The Washington Post bought Newsweek in 1961 to expand its coverage overseas.

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Katharine Graham in 1997

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Taking over the Post

Philip Graham struggled with alcoholism and mental illness throughout the marriage. After he  committed suicide in 1963, Katharine had to assume the position as de facto publisher of the Washington Post Company. She continued to bolster the newspaper’s prestige and eventually took over as the official Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, becoming the first woman CEO of a Fortune 500 Company.

She remained in that position until 1979, when her son, Donald Graham assumed it. Donald Graham is currently chairman and chief executive officer of the board of the Washington Post Company.

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Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee

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Watergate and the Pentagon Papers

One of the most exemplary cases of investigative journalism is the famed Watergate scandal that started brewing in the summer of 1972. Eventually, this would lead to Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

With the help of executive director Ben Bradlee, appointed in 1968, Katharine Graham oversaw the risky investigation that exposed the massive cover-up Nixon plotted by publishing excerpts of a top-secret Department of Defense report on June 18, 1971.

The U.S. Justice Department issued a restraining order disallowing the publication of such files for public consumption, but this caused such an uproar that the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the restraining order so that the publication would resume.

After Daniel Ellsburg leaked information about the American military and political involvement in the war with Vietnam (which came to be known as The Pentagon Papers) to the New York Times in 1971, Nixon was caught abusing his presidential powers and sought to destroy Ellsburg’s career.

When Nixon was found guilty of secretly taping his White House meetings, it was determined that he used his aides to cover up burglaries and other nefarious activities. This infamous case led to a new wave of journalism that questioned authority, introduced a new way of conducting news professionalism, and demonstrated the need for investigative journalism to speak truth to power. 

The investigation not only led to Nixon’s resignation but also earned The Washington Post a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for its groundbreaking work. 

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The Post on film (2017) and Katharine Graham’s legacy

The 2017 film, The Post, depicts the Washington Post’s long battle to publish the Pentagon Papers, top-secret documentation about the U.S involvement in the Vietnam War.  It also depicted the newspaper’s struggle to obtain sources that their competitors didn’t have access to.

The Post showcases how Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep), Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), and others risked their careers to expose the truth. In the course of the film, Katharine Graham’s lack of experience in publishing as well as lack of self-confidence came through. She was constantly overruled by her male counterparts, including her editor-in-chief  and financial advisors.

But she was determined not only to learn about the newspaper business and to do the right thing, which is why she has become a feminist icon.

Katharine Graham overcame her fears rose to the challenges and complications of running a newspaper business and became a role model for women who would follow in that profession. The Washington Post’s dedication to excellent journalism, led by Katharine Graham, continues to inspire journalists around the world.

 

More about Katharine Graham & Sources

Britannica (Katharine Graham)
Pulitzer Prize Winner Katharine Graham
Britannica (Washington Post)
What The Post (film) Misses About Katharine Graham
The News Media: What Everyone Needs to Know. Anderson, Christopher William, et al. Oxford University Press, 2016.

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The Lost Books of Jane Austen by Janine Barchas (2019)

The Lost Books of Jane Austen by Janine Barchas (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) is an ingenious, lavishly illustrated excursion through the printed history of Jane Austen’s books. Barchas contends that the cheap, sometimes shoddily produced printings of Austen’s novels helped keep her work affordable and in the public eye.

From the publisher: In the nineteenth century, inexpensive editions of Jane Austen’s novels targeted to Britain’s working classes were sold at railway stations, traded for soap wrappers, and awarded as school prizes.

At just pennies a copy, these reprints were some of the earliest mass-market paperbacks, with Austen’s beloved stories squeezed into tight columns on thin, cheap paper. Few of these hard-lived bargain books survive, yet they made a substantial difference to Austen’s early readership. These were the books bought and read by ordinary people.

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Packed with nearly 100 full-color photographs of dazzling, sometimes gaudy, sometimes tasteless covers, The Lost Books of Jane Austen is a unique history of these rare and forgotten Austen volumes.

Such shoddy editions, Janine Barchas argues, were instrumental in bringing Austen’s work and reputation before the general public. Only by examining them can we grasp the chaotic range of Austen’s popular reach among working-class readers.

Informed by the author’s years of unconventional book hunting, The Lost Books of Jane Austen will surprise even the most ardent Janeite with glimpses of scruffy survivors that challenge the prevailing story of the author’s steady and genteel rise.

Thoroughly innovative and occasionally irreverent, this book will appeal in equal measure to book historians, Austen fans, and scholars of literary celebrity.

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Title page and opening text from 25-cent Elizabeth Bennet; or Pride and Prejudice (Philadelphia: Carey and Hart, 1845)

At Christmas of 1905, the novels of Jane Austen sold as a boxed gift set of two leather-bound volumes with gilt hearts stamped on front covers and spines (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1903). The reprint of Pride and Prejudice in the Famous Books series is a reissue for a juvenile audience. This image shows two copies of the leather-bound sets, with one Pride and Prejudice open to show the matching frontispiece. Collection of Sandra Clark.

Airmont Classics paperbacks of Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Mansfield Park (New York: Airmont, 1966–67). Author’s collection.

Sir William Beechey’s portrait of Marcia Fox, as it appears on the Penguin English Library edition of Emma (1966 to 1985) and on the 2009 Quirk Classic spoof Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Author’s collection.

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The Lost Books of Jane Austen is available on Amazon*

and wherever books are sold

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Janine Barchas is the Louann and Larry Temple Centennial Professor of English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity and Graphic Design, Print Culture, and the Eighteenth-Century Novel. She is also the creator behind What Jane Saw.

Praise for The Lost Books of Jane Austen

“A major new work by Janine Barchas, an outstanding critic both of Jane Austen and of book history. The Lost Books of Jane Austen is cogent and persuasive.”—Peter Sabor, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Emma

“This ferociously researched book proves that a fresh set of methods can teach us something new about even this much-studied author.”—Leah Price, author of How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain

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You may also enjoy: Jane Austen Postage Stamps

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*This is an Amazon Affiliate link. If the product is purchased by linking through, Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri (June 12, 1827 – July 7, 1901) born Johanna Louise Heusser, was a Swiss author best known for her first and most successful book, the 1881 children’s novel Heidi.

Born in rural Hirzel, not far from Zurich, she grew up in a happy, cultured home in a literary environment. Her mother, Meta Huesser, was a popular songwriter and poet. Her father was a well-known and greatly beloved physician in Zurich. The Huessers opened their home to the intellectual and literary figures of that time and place.

In 1852, when Johanna was 25, she married a former schoolmate, Bernhard Spyri, who became an attorney. While the couple was living in Zurich, she began to tell stories to their son to amuse him, and her husband encouraged her to set them to paper.

It would take many years before her work was published, however. Her first story, about a woman’s experience with domestic abuse, wasn’t published until 1880, when the author was already in her early fifties.

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Bernhard and Johanna Spyri when first married in 1852

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How Heidi came about

Heidi was published in its original German in 1881. Its original subtitled states that it is “a book for children and those who love children.”

Tragically, Spyri’s husband and their son both died in the same year, 1884. Spyri continued to write prolifically as well as to devote herself to charitable causes. None of the dozens of subsequent novels and stories she published came close to the success of Heidi, though that work alone was enough to make Johanna Spyri a national legend. It’s one of the bestselling books not only in Switzerland, but over the entire world.

Heidi has ranked with the Bible and Shakespeare as one of the world’s most widely read books. Translated into dozens of languages, tens of millions of copies have been printed.

In 1884, Heidi saw its first American publication, in a translation by Louise Brooks. As it was in its home country, it was an immediate bestseller, and has been beloved by generations since.

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From the 1922 edition of Heidi, illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith

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Heidi in brief

It’s hard to know what accounts for the universal popularity of Heidi. It’s a simple tale of an orphan girl (of course) who is left by her aunt Dete, who has been caring for her, with her crusty grandfather, a veritable hermit living in the Swiss Alps with a few goats.

Heidi wins him over (of course) and grows to love him, the mountains, and the little goat herd Peter, her only friend. After a time, Dete comes back for Heidi, over Grandfather’s objections, having secured a place for her as a companion to the disabled young daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Heidi grows attached to the girl, and vice versa, but can’t shake her homesickness. She is returned to Grandfather, and, after some turmoil, all is well that ends well. Read more about Heidi here.

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A national legend

Johanna Spyri is a legend in her home country of Switzerland. The Johanna Spyri Museum, dedicated to her life and work, is located not far from Zurich in Hirzel, where the author was born and grew up, states:

“It is not only Heidi’s world, but also that of her creator that you get to know in Zürich’s Hirzel. This is where the little Johanna Louise Heusser went to school. Since 1981 the Johanna Spyri Museum has been located in the Old School House.”

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Johanna Spyri page on Amazon*

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Subsequent Works

A surprising number of Spyri’s other works have been translated into English. One of the most popular, other than Heidi, is arguably Cornelli. You can find full texts of Spyri’s English translations on Project Gutenberg.

Other authors have traded in on the success of Heidi by writing sequels. Heidi Grows Up and Heidi’s Children were written by Charles Tritten in the 1930s. By then, Heidi as well as its translations were in the public domain.

In 2015, an English language edition titled The Complete Works of Johanna Spyri was published in a digital edition. It includes Heidi and eleven other works, so it’s actually not her complete oeuvre, but mainly those that have been translated. Still, it’s valuable to have access to more of Spyri’s works in translation.

In the Foreword, the editor of this edition states:

“Many writers have suffered injustice in being known as the author of but one book. Robinson Crusoe was not Defoe’s only masterpiece, nor did Bunyan confine his best powers to Pilgrim’s Progress … Such too has been the fate of Johanna Spyri, the Swiss authoress, whose reputation is mistakenly supposed to rest on the story of Heidi.

To be sure, Heidi is a book that in its field can hardly be overpraised. The winsome, kind-hearted little heroine in her mountain background is a figure to be remembered from childhood to old age. Nevertheless, Madame Spyri has shown here but one side of her narrative ability.”

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The 2015 German language adaptation of Heidi is faithful to the book.

It’s available to stream on Amazon.*

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Film adaptations of Heidi

Heidi has also been adapted numerous times to the stage, including an opera, plus several movies and television series.

One of the most famous adaptations is the 1937 Shirley Temple film, which plays up on sentimentality, charming though it is. One of the most faithful adaptations is the 2015 German-language film, with a dark-haired Heidi as she was described in the book.

More about Johanna Spyri

Major Works (that have been translated into English)

Cornelli
Erick and Sally
Gritl’is Children
Heidi
Moni the Goat Boy, and Other Stories
Rico and Wiselli
Toni, the Little Woodcarver
Veronica
Vinzi (A Story of the Swiss Alps)
What Sami Sings with the Birds

More information

Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads
Listen to Johanna Spyri’s works on Librivox
Johanna Spyri full text works on Project Gutenberg

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