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“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” by Willa Cather (1905)

“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” is a short story by Willa Cather, first published in McClure’s Magazine in 1905. That year, it also appeared in a collection of Cather’s stories, The Troll Garden. This analysis of “Paul’s Case” is by Sarah Wyman, Associate Professor of English at SUNY-New Paltz:

You probably know someone who reminds you of Paul, someone who does not seem to fit in with others in society. Paul’s mannerisms are tense and nervous. He appears antisocial with his classmates, confrontational with his teachers, and emotionally estranged from his family.

A departure from male gender constructs

The early twentieth-century middle class Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania community in which he lives offers neither inspiration nor role models to whom he can relate. Paul seems detached from the real world, and puts on a show of sorts in order to cope. The narrator describes him in terms that emphasize his sense of drama, “His eyes were remarkable for a certain hysterical brilliancy, and he continually used them in a conscious, theatrical way, peculiarly offensive in a boy.”

The text suggests a degree of anxiety, as Paul veers from typical male gender constructs. Hysterical, from hyster (womb or uterus), for example, refers to an explicitly female condition, a diagnosis that ties illness or abnormality to gender.

“Paul’s Case” appears as a short story in

The Troll Garden and Selected Stories (1905)

A contrast between home life and the world of theater

Cather builds the major contrast of the story between Paul’s Cordelia Street neighborhood and the transporting realm of the theater. She paints a crushingly dismal picture of the deadened home life Paul cannot abide:

The nearer he approached his house, the more absolutely unequal Paul felt to the sight of it all: his ugly sleeping chamber; the cold bathroom with the grimy zinc tub, the cracked mirror, the dripping spigots; his father, at the top of the stairs, his hairy legs sticking out from his nightshirt, his feet thrust into carpet slippers…. Paul stopped short before the door.

Such a deadened life does not give Paul what he needs. The world of the theater, however, where he takes an after school job, brings Paul great joy and leads him into another dimension where he comes alive.

It was at the theatre and at Carnegie Hall that Paul really lived; the rest was but a sleep and a forgetting. This was Paul’s fairy tale, and it had for him all the allurement of a secret love. The moment he inhaled the gassy, painty, dusty odor behind the scenes, he breathed like a prisoner set free, and felt within him the possibility of doing or saying splendid, brilliant, poetic things. The moment the cracked orchestra beat out the overture from Martha, or jerked at the serenade from Rigoletto, all stupid and ugly things slid from him, and his senses were deliciously, yet delicately fired.

Read the full text of “Paul’s Case”

Even a mediocre orchestra that “beats” and “jerks” out music proves enough to electrify Paul’s sensibilities and transport him to the sustaining world of imagination and sensuality that counters his emotionally impoverished existence. Paul’s mother had died soon after his birth, and his father figures as a terrifying threat. In order to avoid his father’s wrath, Paul carries out a sort of self-burial, hiding in the basement.

When he chooses his method of self-destruction, he refuses his father’s gun but goes for an even more violent, confrontational end with a train. Perhaps Paul selects his sole friend, the actor Charley Edwards, as an alternative father-figure. The matronly opera singer he follows represents Romance for him, not in the figure of an alluring female, but rather a substitute mother figure who might have supplied the nurturing love Paul lacks.

An artist of the self

Paul’s outsider characteristics, coupled with the private performance he stages when he runs away to New York City, make him seem an artist of the self. His escape to the city is carefully “rehearsed” and once there, he sets the stage with material objects, fancy dress and flowers, as though preparing for a performance. In his hotel room, leased with stolen cash, “Everything was quite perfect; he was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be.”

Yet, he is only a failed quasi-artist, one who can take in and appreciate the artificially constructed but cannot create his own life as a sustainable work of art. To him, the world of art museums and concert halls is a means to evade dull reality. Paul cannot distinguish between the power of money (which allows for his escape) and of authentic spiritual transcendence, that which he feels when transported by others’ art, but cannot maintain or generate himself. His moments of creativity — putting on this show, and presenting himself as a dandy throughout the story — fail to generate a lasting sense of belonging or peace.

Oblique reference to gay identity

Many read Paul as a homosexual youth, living in a society that would not allow the expression of his orientation. Willa Cather was a lesbian at a time and in a culture when public acknowledgement of such feelings was taboo. Various textual details point obliquely and overtly to the source of his great fear, that which seems to lurk in the corner for him.

“Paul had done things that were not pretty to watch, he knew” is one expression of some aspect of himself that seems to haunt him. When Cather employs terms such as gay and faggot, ones that carried connotations of homosexuality even in 1905, she underscores this implication. His all-night interactions with the freshman from Yale seem cryptically described as well and may allude to a homosexual encounter.

Throughout the story, Cather uses images of water in all its manifestations from “treacherous waters” to whirling snowflakes, to weave a tight texture of language. The accumulation of watery imagery serves as a sort of metaphorical foreshadowing of the more intense moments of figurative drowning and ultimately, death. Paul had been “drowning” at home: “the tepid waters of Cordelia Street were to close over him finally and forever”; “The memory of successive summers on the front stoop fell upon him like a weight of black water.”

The moment of crisis

The moment of crisis, that which motivates Paul towards his radical action of departure, is revealed in retrospect with a clever inversion of traditional, linear narration. The plot development comes across as fated as a Greek tragedy: “when they had shut him out of the theater and concert hall, when they had taken away his bone, the whole thing was virtually determined.” At the moment of death or oblivion, if you prefer, he summons a vision of the “blue of Adriatic water” again evoking the fated Greek nature of the plot.

Before his demise, Paul buries or drowns a defiant carnation in the snow. The flower could symbolize his originality, his artfulness, his seeking after beauty, all sorts of things. A few readers argue that Paul does not in fact die, but rather achieves a final sense of belonging in the cosmos. This interpretation is up to you.

While Paul is not a particularly likable character, clearly flawed, deeply unhappy, the writer does a tremendous job of bringing us to know him in a few short pages. Although the story purports to be an objective, even clinical “study,” according to the title, the narrator’s tone seems sympathetic. Many readers share a sympathetic attitude towards this frustrated youth as he struggles to make his life a work of art.

— Contributed by Sarah Wyman, Associate Professor of English, SUNY-New Paltz

More about “Paul’s Case”:

Willa Cather Foundation
“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” on Wikipedia
“Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” on Goodreads
“Paul’s Case” — a short film starring Eric Roberts (1980)

“Paul’s Case” — a short film starring Eric Roberts (1980)

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

The post “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament” by Willa Cather (1905) appeared first on Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life.

4 Classic Books by Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden & More

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849 –  1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. Born in Cheetham, England, Burnett emigrated to the U.S. with her mother and siblings when she was in her teens, settling in rural Tennessee. At 19, Burnett started publishing stories in magazines to help support her family.

Over the course of her decades-long writing career, Burnett wrote over fifty books and thirteen plays. While many were forgotten, here are four books by Frances Hodgson Burnett that have become timeless classics:

The Secret Garden

Considered Burnett’s most widely known novel, The Secret Garden was published in 1911, after an original version was first serialized in The American Magazine in 1910. The story follows the journey of Mary Lennox, a sickly and unloved 10-year-old girl born to wealthy British parents in India.

After a cholera epidemic kills her parents, Mary is sent to England to live with her uncle in an isolated, mysterious house. The tale tells of the spoiled and sulky young girl slowly shedding her sour demeanor as she discovers a secret locked-up garden. Soon Mary develops a friendship with a disabled boy named Colin whom she finds hidden in one of the manors bedrooms. The Secret Garden is a tale spun by the power that kindness and love can yield, painting powerful imagery of the damages that neglect and selfishness can produce.

During Burnett’s prolific career, The Secret Garden was a mere footnote among her other works. It wasn’t until after her death in 1924 that the book rose in popularity. It was then that it was marketed as a children’s book. Several film adaptations of the book have been created, including a Japanese anime version and a 40-episode YouTube series titled The Misselthwaite Archives coined after Misselthwaite Manor, the name of the estate Mary moves to in England.

A Little Princess

Published as a novel in 1905, A Little Princess was inspired by Burnett’s 1888 serialized novella Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin’s. In 1902, Burnett composed a play inspired by the Sara Crewe story, called The Little Un-fairy Princess. Her publisher than asked her to expand the story into a novel with “the things and people that had been left out before.”

The novel was published in 1905 with the full title A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Being Told for the First Time. The story begins with young Sara and her father, Captain Ralph Crewe, arriving in London after living abroad in India. Coming from a wealth of riches, Captain Crewe sends Sara to boarding school, believing it will be the best education and route for his daughter. The wealth of her family causes the headmaster of the school, Miss Minchin, to become tainted by jealousy and feign kindness towards Sara, which the young girl sees right through.

Much the opposite of the main character in The Secret Garden, despite her rich upbringing and spoils, Sara is brave, kind, and intelligent, and soon her classmates begin to referring to her as a princess. After receiving devastating news of her father’s death, Sara is left with nothing — which Miss Minchin cruelly uses to her advantage, locking the young girl away in the attic to work off her tuition and debts.

Throughout her ordeals she holds her head high, and remains kind and charitable to those even less fortunate than herself, and knows that whatever her outward circumstances, she is always a princess inside.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Little Lord Fauntleroy was the first story that put Burnett on the literary map, first published as a serialization in 1885, then as a book in 1886. The story is of a young boy, Cedric Errol, living in poverty in New York City with his widowed mother. One day they receive a visitor with a message that reveals to Cedric and his mother that he is the heir to the Earl of Dorincourt, making him Lord Fauntleroy. The mother and son move to England to embrace their newfound fortune, but soon discover Cedric’s grandfather, the old Earl, is a bitter old man with a lingering distrust towards all.

The story follows the patient,kind boy, and his ability to transform his grouchy old grandfather, which benefits not only the castle but the entire region of the earldom.

The costume worn by Lord Fauntleroy inspired a fad of formal dress wear for middle-class American children. The classic “Fauntleroy suit” was a velvet jacket and matching knee pants, worn with a fancy blouse with a ruffled collar. The character of Cedric is said to be inspired by Burnett’s youngest son, Vivian, and the clothing illustrated in the book inspired by the costumes she tailored for both her sons.

In 1888, Burnett discovered a plagiarized version of her novel had been turned into a play, and successfully sued. She then wrote her own theatrical version of Little Lord Fauntleroy, which opened May 14, 1888 in London, and soon restaged in France, Boston, and New York City. 

The Lost Prince

Published in 1915, The Lost Prince is the story of a young boy named Marco Loristan and his father, Stefan. Stefan, a Samavian patriot, is working to overthrow the unfavorable dictatorship in the kingdom. The pair, in exile from Samavia, move to London where Marco strikes up a unique friendship with a street urchin named The Rat.

The two boys imagine fighting for their home country of Samavia and concoct a plan to restore The Lost Prince, a mythical figure who is the rightful heir to rule Samavia. The two embark on a secret mission to travel across Europe to deliver a message to a secret society that “The Lamp is Lighted,” a signal to those who have been stock-piling supplies.

Following a common theme among Burnett’s books, the novel is a classic children’s book highlighting the virtue of self-discipline, earned respect, and parental love and faith in a child’s ability.

More about Frances Hodgson Burnett’s books on this site

Quotes from  A Little Princess
Quotes from  The Secret Garden
Book Description of  A Little Princess
Illustrations from Sara Crewe 

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

The post 4 Classic Books by Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden & More appeared first on Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life.

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (1923)

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, published in 1923, is the start of a trilogy of novels about Emily Byrd Starr that invites comparison with the beloved Anne of Green Gables series. These books, as is true for many of L.M. Montgomery’s writings, are meant for “children of all ages.”

When Emily’s father dies of consumption (what is now called tuberculosis), she is orphaned. She is sent to live at New Moon Farm to live with her aunts, Elizabeth and Laura Murray (typical literary spinsters) and cousin Jimmy. There she makes friends with Ilse, Perry, and Teddy, each of whom has a dream based on their particular gift. Emily wishes passionately to be a writer; Ilse wants to be a speaker, Perry seems destined to be a politician, and Teddy is a talented artist.

A girl who loves to write

Emily has a conflict with her Aunt Elizabeth, who’s not on board with her desire to write. Each of her friends is also having an issue with a parent. Emily finds an ally in an elderly schoolteacher, who encourages her writing while being a helpful and honest critic.

In terms of personality, Maud Montgomery considered Emily more of a reflection of herself and her own personality than Anne. Like herself, Emily was a loyal and dedicated friend, loved learning, and appreciated nature. Emily of New Moon was followed by Emily Climbs (1925) and Emily’s Quest (1927). The books follow her through her school years into adulthood when she becomes a successful author.

See also: Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Though the Emily series wasn’t as wildly successful as the Anne of Green Gables books, it has had its generations of devoted readers. There’s no greater proof of this than the fact that the books have never been out of print since they were first published! The series of books have also been translated into a number of languages.

Unlike the Anne series, the Emily books haven’t been the subject of numerous film or TV adaptations, though there was a Canadian televised series that aired on CBC from 1998 to 2000. The following 1923 review is typical of the reception to the book — generally favorable, not as wildly so, but inviting comparisons with the more sober, black-haired Emily to her predecessor, Anne.

Maud Montgomery’s tales gently weave in truths about the limited choices for girls and women of the time. Both the Anne and Emily series display Maud Montgomery’s gift for storytelling and sly humor.

Legions of readers have been devoted to Anne, while others prefer the more contained Emily, who is grounded in her passionate ambition to become a writer. The Emily trilogy shows her in the act of writing, living, and breathing writing, and working to improve her craft. That single-minded devotion to the art of writing is a rarity in children’s literature.

Emily of New Moon on Amazon

An original 1923 review of Emily of New Moon

From the original review of Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September, 1923: Anne of Green Gables is still queen of the long line of orphans who have cast their lot with spinsters, built air castles, and in the end won the affection of their frigid benefactors.

Emily of New Moon is almost as delightful a character. And when the author leaves her in the early teens one hopes for another Emily book, just as a few years ago popular demand made Anne grow up.

There isn’t a great deal of originality in Emily of New Moon. Instead of the little red-haired heroine, we have a black-haired one, and in place of amusing incident, where Anne dyed her hated locks green, we have Emily hacking away with the scissors in order to gratify a yearning for bangs.

This book is the old “Once upon a time there was a little girl” sort of story, but the formula appears to have worn well. When the story opens, Emily lives with her father in a little house in the country. The father dies and the child is left to face the proud Murrays, her mother’s people. These relatives never forgave Juliet Murray for marrying a poor newspaperman.

They unbend at funerals, though, and arrive at Emily’s home in their best black satins. No one is anxious for Emily to live with them, so they draw lots for the little girl, and fate sends her to live at New Moon in Blair Water on Prince Edward Island with her Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Laura, and Cousin Jimmy.

Through loneliness and a natural urge to write, Emily puts all her thoughts into letters to her dead father, which she scribbles on old bills and hides in the garret. In this diary, particularly, the author displays her keen knowledge of a child’s mind. While many of the letters are wistful, showing the young person’s struggle to comprehend grownups, through them all are flashes of humor, and amusing misspellings.

Emily is confident that she is a genius, and the author brings the story to a close with a friendly school teacher giving the young girl a helping hand toward her goal of becoming a famous author.

More about Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery

Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads
Review on Book Snob
What Children’s Literature Teaches Us About Money

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A Conversation with Elise Hooper, Author of The Other Alcott

Many of us grew up reading and re-reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. But while most fans cheer on Jo March, based on Louisa herself, Amy March is often the least favorite sister. Now, it’s time to learn the truth about the “real Amy” — Louisa’s sister, May. In The Other Alcott, a captivating work of historical fiction, Elise Hooper gives readers a glimpse into the youngest Alcott’s artistic pursuits and her side of the sibling rivalry. Here’s an in-depth conversation with Elise Hooper, the author of this intriguing work of historical fiction.

Q: Why did you feel compelled to write about May Alcott?

A: I grew up in Massachusetts near Concord and attended drama camp at Orchard House. Along with all of my visits to the Alcott family home, I read many of Louisa May Alcott’s novels, but it was really Little Women that gave shape to my desire to be a writer at a young age, so for my first novel, I wanted to revisit the historical figures who played such a formative role in my own interests.

Many writers have already covered interesting aspects of the Alcotts’ lives so I felt pressure to find a unique path. I researched and researched and experienced a few false starts, but found May’s story largely untold—which is amazing because it’s so compelling! She was such an optimistic figure, despite the many challenges that faced her, and she’s always been overshadowed by her infinitely more famous older sister, making me feel that her story needed to be told. Furthermore, I thought many modern readers would relate to May’s struggle to balance her desire for a career with her search to find love.

Q: Upon reading The Other Alcott, Little Women fans may be surprised at Louisa’s conflicting feelings about the beloved classic. How much of the portrayal of Louisa is true and how much did you fictionalize?

A: To understand Louisa, readers must understand the real circumstances of the Alcotts prior to Little Women being published. Unlike Little Women’s March family who live in a state of genteel poverty, the Alcotts were flat-out impoverished. May’s father, Bronson, refused to accept monetary reward for work, so they relied on the generosity of family members and a small inheritance May’s mother, Abigail, received upon the death of her father.

While struggling to stay afloat financially, the Alcotts moved more than twenty-two times in almost thirty years before eventually settling in Concord, Massachusetts, after Ralph Waldo Emerson offered to support them. Although all of the Alcott sisters grappled with poverty’s challenges, Louisa, in particular, vowed that one day she’d be “rich and famous,” yet for years her various writing endeavors didn’t lead to riches.

It wasn’t until Louisa’s longtime publisher, Mr. Thomas Niles, saw the success of William Taylor Adams’s novels for boys that he proposed a “domestic story” for girls to Louisa. Initially she dismissed the idea, feeling the book would be dull, but eventually Niles wore her down.

More About The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper

Q: Did Louisa really resent the success of Little Women the way she does in The Other Alcott?

A: Louisa had a complicated relationship with Little Women from the start, and I wanted to explore this complexity in my novel. She often called her writing for the juvenile market “rubbish” and declared she only produced it for the money. She became annoyed with the fan mail that focused on marriage and felt “afflicted” by the pressure her publisher placed upon her to marry all of her characters in a “wholesome manner.”

I think most artists can identify with the tension Louisa faced between creating work that satisfied her own need for self-expression and producing work that held the market’s interest. Because the Alcotts depended upon her income, Louisa chose to answer to the market, but I believe she remained uncomfortable with that decision for the rest of her life. All of her journals and letters make her insecurities clear; she is forever tallying up her income in her journal and lamenting writing the juvenile content her audience demanded. Fame and fortune did not live up to her expectations.

But despite her uneasiness with writing for children, it must be noted that she took her young audience seriously and never condescended to her readers. In fact, many of Louisa’s stories tackled fairly adult themes, such as injustice, duty, and self-reliance.

More about how Louisa May Alcott came to write Little Women

Q: Did Louisa really teach herself to write with both hands?

A: Yes, she did! She wanted to be able to write for long stretches of time without stopping, so she simply switched back and forth between her right and left hands while she worked.

Q: In The Other Alcott, Louisa always seems ill. Was her health really that bad?

A: Unfortunately, Louisa was bedeviled by a variety of ailments throughout adulthood. During the American Civil War, she served as a nurse for the Union Army in Washington, D.C., and caught typhoid fever while working at Bellevue Hospital. Although she eventually recovered, doctors used a compound to treat her illness that she later believed gave her mercury poisoning.

Today, doctors suspect Louisa suffered from lupus. But her health woes may have been even more complicated than physical ailments alone. In her documentary Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, Harriet Reisen speculates that Louisa may have suffered from manic-depressive disorder based on her tendency to immerse herself so completely in her writing that she would neglect to eat and sleep for days at a time. Louisa referred to these manic periods as “falling into a vortex” and would emerge from them depleted and in poor health.

Q: It seems like Bronson Alcott, Louisa and May’s father, could be considered radical for his era. What contributed to his unusual views?

A: Bronson was a unique individual, even by today’s standards. Among other things, he was a philosopher, abolitionist, vegetarian, suffragist, and progressive educator. In fact, today’s kids who love recess can thank Bronson Alcott because he introduced the idea of “physical activity breaks” during the school day well before this was the norm.

When May was a toddler in the early 1840s, he even started a small utopian community in Harvard, Massachusetts, called Fruitlands and moved his family there. Daily life at Fruitlands was a challenge—its residents ate no animal products, bathed in cold water every morning, wore plain tunics and slippers made of linen (to avoid wearing slave-picked cotton), and refused to use any livestock for farming.

Hungry and cold, the community’s residents chafed at the group’s stated goal of being self-reliant. When Bronson started discussing celibacy, Abigail Alcott announced she was leaving and taking Anna, Louisa, Lizzie, and May. The whole Fruitlands experiment fell apart after only seven months, but Bronson stuck with his transcendental philosophy for the rest of his life.

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10 Writers Who Were Inspired by Jo March of Little Women

Q: What was transcendentalism and how did this philosophy impact May?

A: Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century rooted in the belief that human nature was inherently good but could be corrupted by society’s institutions, such as organized religion and political parties.

Transcendentalists believed self-reliance and independence to be the ideal state of man. Because of his transcendental philosophy, Bronson Alcott didn’t want to participate in economic systems and refused to receive money in exchange for work.

Luckily for the Alcotts, Mr. Emerson believed Bronson to be a great philosopher and helped the Alcotts in many ways over the years. While May didn’t identify herself as a transcendentalist explicitly, the movement’s beliefs undoubtedly influenced her desire to forge her own path that differed from mainstream society.

Q: Of all of the women artists in The Other Alcott, only Mary Cassatt is a name that most people today recognize. If women began studying art in larger numbers during the late 1800s, why are there not more well-known women artists?

A: While studying art became more accessible to women during the late 1800s, the commercial arena of artistic success still remained mostly closed to women for many reasons. For one, it took years to hone the skills and business connections needed to become a successful painter or sculptor.

Most women did not have decades to develop their talents and build connections with art dealers because they often needed to marry to ensure their own financial well-being. In addition, women lacked access to birth control, and their long-term careers as artists were compromised since marriage ensured periods of creative unproductivity due to childbearing and childrearing.

The most well-known American women artists of the late 1800s — Mary Cassatt and Cecilia Beaux, to name a couple—remained unmarried because they were from wealthy families and possessed the means to be independent. Several of the women in The Other Alcott, including Rosa Bonheur, Anna Klumpke, Anne Whitney, and Adeline Manning, lived in “Boston Marriages” a term used to describe two women living together in a long-term relationship, but these women had the means to eschew traditional marriages and focus on their careers unimpeded by familial responsibilities.

One of the few women who juggled motherhood with her professional career as an artist was Berthe Morisot, a wealthy member of the French aristocracy. She continued to work as an Impressionist painter after the birth of her daughter, Julie, because she could hire help and her husband, also a painter, supported her endeavors. This was unusual. Overall, most women painters found it challenging to maintain professional artistic lives once they married and started families of their own.

A Visit to Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House

Q: What kind of research helped you better understand this family and the era?

A: I started by learning as much about May Alcott and her family as possible. Biographies of the Alcotts are plentiful, especially about Louisa and Bronson, so I immersed myself in secondary sources to get a broad sense of the major milestones in their lives and formative experiences before turning to primary sources. The Alcotts were a family of prolific letter writers and journal keepers, so there was a wide selection of material from which I could experience their individual personalities.

Rereading some of Louisa’s novels, especially Little Women and An Old-Fashioned Girl educated me on Victorian life, from big topics to small details, ranging from Victorian recreational activities to the types of flowers an upper-class family would have on their dining room table.

As I delved deeper into creating my story, I discovered I needed more information on Victorian life, such as steamship and rail travel, so I studied everything from ship menus to railroad timetables. The Seattle Public Library provided countless books about the Impressionists and the Salon, art exhibition catalogs, and out-of-print books about various women artists from the era. I scoured antique maps of Concord, Boston, Rome, London, and Paris and used Google Maps to virtually “walk” some of the neighborhoods that May trod, all while sitting at my computer.

Honestly, writing historical fiction must have been very, very, very time consuming before the Internet came along. Sometimes I stretched the truth, such as when May tries to reach Hunt’s studio during the Great Boston Fire of 1872. In fact, I don’t know where May was during the fire, but Louisa writes about her own experiences watching the conflagration, so I decided to put May in Boston too because the fire significantly impacted her art studies.

The Other Alcott on Amazon

Q: Describe how you wove fictional elements into a real story.

A: When I needed an activity to engage characters, I turned to artifacts and some quintessential Victorian activities and let my imagination loose. For example, how would I set up the moment when May begins to doubt a future with Joshua Bishop? An old photograph by Josiah Johnson Hawes titled Snow Scene on the Northeast Corner of the Boston Common made me realize I could literally put my two characters on a collision course with a sleigh.

When I needed to make May realize how much she cares for Ernest Nieriker, I capitalized on the Victorian bicycle craze and stuck the poor fellow atop a big wheeler, sending him on a bumpy ride. Perhaps one of my favorite historical details came to me as I was researching the Boston Public Gardens and learned the history behind the city’s beloved Swan Boats. Although to the best of my knowledge Louisa never wrote a letter endorsing the widow who wanted to run the family’s Swan Boat business after the death of her husband, it seemed like a cause Louisa would have wholeheartedly embraced, so I worked it into one of her letters to May.

See also: Madeleine B. Stern’s Brilliant Analysis of Little Women

This conversation with Elise Hooper, author of The Other Alcott (2017) is reprinted by permission of the publisher, William Morrow.

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

The post A Conversation with Elise Hooper, Author of The Other Alcott appeared first on Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life.

The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper (a novel of May Alcott)

The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper, the author’s debut novel, is a believable imagining of the life of May Alcott. The youngest of the Alcott sisters, she was the inspiration for the character of Amy March in Little Women. May (who, after she married, was known as May Alcott Nieriker) was a talented artist in her own right. As she seeks to establish her own identity apart from the close-knit family, the personality of a dynamic and determined young woman, in many ways ahead of her time, unfolds.

Here is a description of this engaging novel, published in the fall of 2017, reprinted by permission of the publisher, William Morrow:

Many of us grew up knowing the story of the March sisters, heroines of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. But while most fans cheer on Jo March, based on Louisa herself, Amy March is often the least favorite sister. Now, it’s time to learn the truth about the “real Amy” — Louisa’s sister, May. In The Other Alcott, a captivating work of historical fiction, Elise Hooper gives readers a glimpse into the youngest Alcott’s artistic pursuits and her side of the sibling rivalry.

Author Elise Hooper grew up near the Alcott’s home in Concord, Massachusetts and has been fascinated by the Alcotts (local legends) since her childhood. She remembers visiting Orchard House at age ten and exploring Louisa Alcott’s restored bedroom. There, at a small desk in the corner, was where Louisa had written her classic Little Women in two feverish months.

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May Alcott Nieriker: Thoroughly Modern Woman

Hooper recalls backing away from the desk and entering May’s room, the youngest of the Alcott sisters, better known to the world as Amy March from Little Women where pencil sketches of angels and animals adorned the walls. This lesser-known sister, the free spirit, the girl who decorated her walls—was she really the brat she was portrayed to be in her sister’s novel? Elise felt suspicious of Louisa’s account of her. After all, what would our siblings write about us if given the chance?

Almost three decades later as Elise embarked on writing a novel, there was no question what she would write about. Her childhood obsession: the Alcotts. And there was May, the sister she and the rest of us knew very little about.  Who was she?  What was it like to be portrayed negatively in your sister’s novel for all the world to read?

In The Other Alcott, life for the Alcott family has never been easy, but the most pressing of their financial struggles are eased when Louisa’s Little Women is published. Everyone agrees the novel is charming, but May is struck to the core by the portrayal of selfish, spoiled “Amy March.” Is this what her beloved sister really thinks of her?

See also: A Visit to the Alcott’s Orchard House

(watercolor of the house is by May Alcott)

She begins to question her relationship with her sister as well as her dream to be an artist when her illustrations for Little Women are received poorly by reviewers. This inspires May to embark on a quest to discover her own true identity: as an artist and a woman. Starting with art lessons in Boston and moving on to Rome, London, and Paris, this brave, talented, and determined woman forges a life on her own terms, making her so much more than merely “The Other Alcott.”

The Other Alcott is a distinctive and enjoyable read which will include samples of May Alcott’s original (and panned!) illustrations for Little Women. Here’s just a few of the early artistic efforts from May Alcott, who eventually landed two paintings in the Paris Salon.

About the author

Although a New Englander by birth (and at heart),  Elise Hooper lives with her husband and two young daughters in Seattle, where she teaches history and literature. The Other Alcott is her first novel.

The Other Alcott on Amazon

Reviews of The Other Alcott

“Hooper is especially good at depicting the complicated blend of devotion and jealousy so common among siblings… a lively, entertaining read.”  — Kirkus Reviews

“Elise Hooper’s debut novel, The Other Alcott, is a delightful, moving book about the strength of women, the impetus of creativity and the indelible bond between sisters. If you loved Little Women (or even if you didn’t), this engaging take on the real-life relationship between the Alcott sisters will fascinate and inspire. More than ever, we need books like this – in celebration of a woman overlooked by history, one whose story helps shed light on our own contemporary search for love, identity and meaning.” — Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The House Girl

“With its globetrotting, sibling rivalry, old-fashioned courtship, art world intrigue and one very difficult choice, Elise Hooper’s thoroughly modern debut gives a fresh take on one of literature’s most beloved families. To read this book is to understand why the women behind Little Women continue to cast a long shadow our imaginations and dreams. Hooper is a writer to watch!” — Elisabeth Egan, author of A Window Opens

“In The Other Alcott, Elise Hooper has crafted a sweeping and deeply personal tale of a young woman’s struggle to emerge out of her famous sister’s shadow and define herself as an artist and an independent adventurer. You will never look at Little Women or the Alcott family the same way again.” — Laurie Lico Albanese, author of Stolen Beauty

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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6 Classic African-American Women Authors You Should Know More About

Historically, it was challenge enough for women to become published authors, and until the 1970s or so, this was especially true for African-American women writers facing the dual struggle of race and gender bias. Somewhat of a turning point came during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, during which time talented women found a more supportive and nurturing community. Here are 6 classic African-American women authors, from the Harlem Renaissance era through midcentury (and a bit beyond) worth getting to know — and reading.

Lorraine Hansberry (1930 – 1965) is best known for A Raisin in the Sun, the first play to be written by an African-American woman that was brought to Broadway. She also wrote political essays and worked for the African-American magazine Freedom. Hansberry was a part of and wrote for the Daughters of Bilitis’ magazine The Ladder.

Her insightful commentary on social and race issues  in her writings made her stand out and impacted the world of arts and entertainment and beyond. Her autobiography, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, was also quite influential. Though she died quite young at the age of 34, what Hansberry accomplished was impressive. A Raisin in the Sun is a classic of the American stage and is produced in revival on a regular basis. It was also made into the critically acclaimed film of the same name.

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000) was an American poet whose works included sonnets and ballads as well as blues rhythm in free verse. She also created lyrical poems reflecting African-American life. Her output encompassed more than twenty books in her lifetime, including children’s books.

Born in Topeka, Kansas, Brooks moved with her family to Chicago during the Great Migration. She started reading classic authors and poets when she was young and had her first poem was published in a children’s magazine when she was 13 years old. Her experiences of racial bias informed her views on race, and eventually influenced her work as a writer. Gwendolyn Brooks won a multitude of awards for her work; she was the first African-American woman to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

More about Gwendolyn Brooks

Biography
Quotes on Writing and Life
5 Things to Love About Gwendolyn Brooks
The Poet as Working Mother

Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1959), with her determined intelligence and humor, quickly became a big name in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. She had a dual career as a writer (producing novels, short stories, plays, and essays) and as an anthropologist.

Zora was the first black student at Barnard College, the women’s college connected with Columbia. There she studied with the noted anthropologist Franz Boas, who recognized her talent for storytelling and her abiding interest in black cultures of the American South and Caribbean.

Their Eyes Were Watching God  (1937) is her best known work, and has become something of a feminist classic, with the heroine of the story searching for independence, identity, and happiness. Despite Zora’s great talent and drive, she was largely forgotten by the time she died in 1960, alone, broke, and ill. It’s fortunate that her life, legacy, and work has been revived to enjoy and study.

More about Zora Neale Hurston

Biography
Quotes and Life Lessons
What White Publishers Won’t Print
A 1934 Interview
5 Quotes from “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”

Nella Larsen (1891 – 1964) may not have produced a large body of writing, but is considered one of the most influential voices of the Harlem Renaissance. She went on to be the first black woman to graduate from library school and to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship for creative writing. When not writing, she worked as a nurse (at the Tuskegee Institute) and a children’s librarian.

As  a mixed-race woman whose background included starkly different cultures, the theme of her life, and in effect, her work, was a sense of never belonging — not to any community, nor even to an immediate family. In Nella Larsen’s modest body of work are two short, exquisite novels that have found a new audience today. Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) are eminently readable and fascinating snapshots of the stringent racial lines of 1920s America.

More about Nella Larsen

Biography
Insightful Quotes from Passing by Nella Larsen 
Quotes from Quicksand and Others by Nella Larsen
Passing  (1929): An Introduction

Ann Petry (1908 – 1997) was the first African-American woman to produce a book (The Street) whose sales topped one million (ultimately it would sell a million and a half copies). Though she was encouraged her to write while growing up, Ann went to pharmacy college and received a degree during the Depression, when pursuing a practical profession was a must. She followed in her father’s footsteps to become a pharmacist in the family drugstore.

She was always an avid reader who was particularly taken with Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March as a fictional heroine and role model for her literary aspirations. Though none of her subsequent works sold in the sheer volume of The Street, nor achieved its notoriety, Ann Petry remained a respected voice in literature.

More about Ann Petry

Biography
Ann Petry Talks of Race Problems
Ann Petry obituary (1997)
6 Interesting Facts About Ann Petry

 

Dorothy West (1907 – 1998) started writing as a child and began receiving accolades and awards while still in her teens. She found community in the city, West became part of the Harlem Renaissance and was known by her contemporaries as “The Kid.” Her writing is admired for the detail and examinations of African-American community in the areas of gender, class, and social issues.

Dorothy founded the literary magazine Challenge in 1934, and New Challenge in 1937.  Though she continued to write short fiction, her first novel, The Living is Easy, wasn’t published until 1948. Then, there was a gap of many years until her second novel, The Wedding, was published in 1995. She was 85 years old. In 1998, it was adapted into a television mini-series, produced by Oprah Winfrey.

More about Dorothy West

Biography
The Wedding: A mini-series (1998)
Dorothy West Quotes on Identity and Experience

MORE CLASSIC AFRICAN-AMERICAN

AUTHORS ON THIS SITE

Octavia Butler

Jessie Redmon Fauset

Audre Lorde

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6 Female Journalists of the World War II Era

These six female journalists of the World War II era, who reported on and documented from the field,  pushed gender-defined barriers and fought for what they believed in, paving the way for women correspondents who came after them. They contributed to history with their groundbreaking work and bravery as journalists, photographers, and correspondents during World War II. At right, Ruth Baldwin Cowan’s WW II press credentials. See more about her later in this post.

Photo from TIME 

Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) breaks through the scene with many accomplishments of “firsts.” She is best known for being the first American female war correspondent, and the first foreign photographer permitted to take photos of the Soviet five-year plan. In 1929, Bourke-White became the associate editor and staff photographer for Fortune magazine and later in 1936 became the first female photojournalist for Life magazine.

As the first female war correspondent of World War II, in 1941 she traveled to the Soviet Union as Germany broke its pact of non-aggression and was the only foreign photographer in Moscow when German forces invaded. Her recognition is also noticed in both India and Pakistan for her photographs of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi. 

See the Classic Cameras Used by LIFE’s

First Female Staff Photographer

Dickey Chapelle (1919–1965) was an American photojournalist known for her work with National Geographic as a war correspondent from World War II through the Vietnam War. Fearless when it came to covering a story, Chapelle was jailed for two months during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 when she was captured by Russia after she went undercover as a spy.

Earning the respect from both the military and journalistic community, Chapelle learned to jump with paratroopers, having often traveled with the troops. Although one of her “firsts” is of a sad circumstance, she was the first female correspondent to be killed in the Vietnam War. She was buried with full military honors, a rarity for civil journalists.  

See the brilliant photos by the first American

female war photographer

Marjory Collins (1912-1985) was an American photojournalist best known for her coverage of the home front during World War II. She described herself as a “rebel looking for a cause.” She began her career in NYC in the 1930’s working for PM and U.S. Camera magazine.

Post WWII, Collins combined her passions of writing and photography and worked internationally as a freelance photographer. A devote feminist and activist, she founded the journal Prime Time “for and by older women.” 

Ruth Baldwin Cowan (1901–1993) began her career as a weekend movie reviewer, but quickly became a reporter for the San Antonio Evening News. Ruth Baldwin Cowan dropped her first name and began freelancing forThe Houston Chronicle and soon the United Press under the pseudonym Baldwin Cowan to conceal her gender, since the publications strictly forbid hiring women.

When her identity was outed, she was soon let go but quickly contacted the Associate Press, who hired her promptly. She worked for the Associate Press for the next 27 years, covering Washington’s social life, Eleanor Roosevelt’s press conferences and a multitude of human interest stories, but she is best known for her work as an overseas correspondent during World War II. Read her obituary here.

Martha Gellhorn (1908–1998) was an American journalist, novelist, and travel writer who is now considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century. During 60-year career, she reported on nearly every major world conflict, from the Spanish Civil War, to the rise of Adolf Hitler, through the outbreak of WWII, and the Vietnam War.

While she may be  known as the third wife of the novelist Ernest Hemingway, her journalistic accomplishments far outshine the brief marriage. In attempt to witness the Normandy landings, Gellhorn hid in a hospital ship bathroom and impersonated as a stretcher bearer to gain access. She was the only woman to land at Normandy on D-Day in 1944, and among the first journalists to report from Dachau concentration camp after it was liberated in 1945. 

Quotes by Gellhorn here on Literary Ladies Guide

The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism

Marguerite Higgins Hall 1920–1966 was an American reporter and war correspondent, covering World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War working for the New York Herald Tribune and Newsday. After witnessing the Hangang Bridge bombing in Seoul, she was denied entry to U.S. military headquarters in Suwon, South Korea after arriving by raft with her colleagues.

She was ordered out of the country by the General, but after making an appeal to his superior, the Herald Tribune received a telegram stating “The ban on women correspondents in Korea has been lifted. Marguerite Higgins is held in highest professional esteem by everyone.” This was a major breakthrough for all female war journalists. Higgins was also the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Correspondence in 1951 for her coverage of the Korean War. See more about Hall’s Pulitzer Prize.

You might also like:

10 Pioneering African-American Female Journalists

If you’d like more on this subject, try to find the film No Job for a Woman, the 2011 documentary that focuses on Martha Gellhorn, Ruth Cowan, and Dickey Chappelle, and their fight for the right to report on World War II. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to find this film to stream online. Check for it at your local public or university library.

The post 6 Female Journalists of the World War II Era appeared first on Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life.

Books by Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit and More

Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) the British author and illustrator of children’s books, took her inspiration from a childhood spent in nature and with animals, plus a vivid imagination. Best known for The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), Beatrix both wrote and illustrated this popular children’s book, which was originally self-published. The book was inspired by Beatrix’s two childhood pet rabbits, Benjamin Bouncer and Peter Piper.

As a child, Beatrix was encouraged to pursue her passion for drawing and painting, gathering inspiration from her natural surroundings and family pets. Beatrix and her brother would illustrate postcards when they went on holiday to Scotland, sending letters back home to friends.

In 1893, while on holiday, after having run out of things to write about, she wrote a story to the children of friend about “four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.” It would later become one of the most famous children’s letters ever written, and laid the groundwork for Beatrix Potter’s success as a writer, artist, and storyteller.

In 1901, the story of Peter Rabbit was initially rejected by several publishers, until Beatrix decided to publish the book herself. She printed 250 copies for family and friends. Publishing company Frederick Warne & Co. noticed the success of her self-printed copies, and agreed to publish The Tale of Peter Rabbit if Beatrix re-illustrated the book in color. It was an immediate bestseller. In all, she wrote and illustrated 24 children’s books; the following list of Beatrix Potter books are among the best known.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

This best-selling children’s book has been translated in 36 different languages with over 45 million copies sold. The character of Peter Rabbit has generated merchandise for both children and adults alike, with the first Peter Rabbit doll patented by Beatrix Potter in 1903. The story is of a young rabbit, Peter, advised by his widowed mother to avoid the vegetable garden of a man named Mr. McGregor. His mother reminds Peter of his fathers demise, where he was “put into a pie by Mrs. McGregor.” Rebellious by nature, Peter sneaks into the garden only to over-indulge on the bountiful produce and is nearly caught by Mr. McGregor. The children’s book is beautifully illustrated and imaginative of the life of a family of rabbits.

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck

Similarly to The Tale of Peter Rabbit, both in reader popularity and with spinoff merchandise,The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908) was both written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. The book is of a domestic duck named Jemima, whose eggs are repeatedly confiscated by the farmers wife, who believes Jemima to be “a poor sitter.” Jemima attempts to find a place far from the farm to lay her eggs, confiding in a sly fox who invites her to do so in a nest at his home.

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

A sequel to the successful Peter Rabbit, the story tells of Peter Rabbit returning to Mr. McGregor’s garden with his cousin Benjamin to retrieve clothing he lost while on his first escapade in the garden. The character of Benjamin returned in Beatrix’s book The Tale of Flopsy Bunnies and Mr. Tod as an adult rabbit. In 1992 Benjamin Bunny was adapted as an episode of The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends on BBC.

Beatrix Potter books on Amazon

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

After writing two full-length tales of bunnies, Beatrix yearned for a change in story. Unable to deny the popularity of her rabbit stories and illustrations, Beatrix grabbed plot elements and characters from The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny to develop The Tale of Flopsy Bunnies (1909). Her illustrations for this book were inspired by the flowerbeds and garden of archways of her aunt and uncles home in Wales.

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

Published in 1903, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin the story follows an ill-mannered red squirrel named Nutkin. Similarly to the inspiration of the Peter Rabbit tales, the origins of Squirrel Nutkin are traced to letters Beatrix wrote to Norah Moore, the daughter of the former governess, Annie Carter Moore. A shortened version of the tale appeared in the 1971 ballet film, The Tales of Beatrix Potter.

The Tale of Two Bad Mice

Inspired by two mice caught in a cage-trap in her cousins home, and in a dollhouse being constructed by her editor and publisher Norman Warne for his niece. As the tale developed, the two fell in love. The story is of two mice who vandalize a dollhouse, destroying the dining room after finding food. The tales theme of rebellion and destruction is analyzed as a reflection of Beatrix’s own desire to separate and free herself from her parent’s scrutiny and disdain over her relationship with Norman Wane, whom she did later marry despite her parents wishes.

The Tale of Tom Kitten

The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907) is to teach children of manners and respectful obedience. The story follows the character Tabitha Twitchit,  a cat who invites her friends over for tea. After dutifully washing and dressing her three kittens, they soon soil their outfits after romping around in the garden. Banishing the kittens upstairs to the bedroom until the tea party is over, the “dignity and repose of the tea party” is threatened to be ruined after the kittens disobediently cause a ruckus upstairs.

The Tailor of Gloucester

The Tailor of Gloucester  (1902) was privately printed by Beatrix Potter in 1902, and later published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1903. Potter has declared this book to be her favorite. The story is about a tailor who saves a mouse from his cat, who later goes on to finish the tailors work on a waistcoat out of gratitude. It is based on a real-life incident between the tailor John Pritchard, a Gloucester tailor commissioned to make a new suit for the mayor. He returned to his shop one early Monday morning to find the suit finished (all except for one buttonhole) with a note saying “No more twist.” Beatrix sketched the Gloucester street the tailors shop resided for her book.

More about Beatrix Potter on this site

Visit 5 ClassicWomen Authors’ Homes In England
Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life by Marta McDowell

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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Life, Love, Freedom, and Dragons: Quotes by Ursula Le Guin

Best known for her literary works in genres of science fiction and fantasy, the American novelist Ursula K. Le Guin (1929 – 2018) also authored children’s books, short stories and poetry. Her skill in the genres of the fantastic is said to have been influenced from her childhood, and inspired her master’s degree in romance literature of the middle ages and Renaissance.

She instilled cultural exploration as a vital part to the genre of her works, her characters vibrantly bursting from the page as scientists, anthropologists, diplomats and travelers. Best described as “fiery” and with having “immense energy” by those who knew her, a passion for life, love, freedom and mythology shines through in these gathered quotes by Ursula Le Guin.

Life’s journey

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” — The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.”  —The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

“There’s a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.” ― The Dispossessed, 1974

“If you evade suffering you also evade the chance of joy. Pleasure you may get, or pleasures, but you will not be fulfilled. You will not know what it is to come home.”  ― The Dispossessed, 1974

“And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful life is, is from the vantage point of death.”  — The Dispossessed, 1974

“… when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all that I didn’t do. All that I might have been and couldn’t be. All the choices I didn’t make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven’t been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed.”  ― The Other Wind, 2001

“To see that your life is a story while you’re in the middle of living it may be a help to living it well.” ― Gifts, 2004

“When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.”  ― The Farthest Shore, 1972

Photo by William Anthony

“Life rises out of death, death rises out of life; in being opposite they yearn to each other, they give birth to each other and are forever reborn. And with them, all is reborn, the flower of the apple tree, the light of the stars. In life is death. In death is rebirth. What then is life without death? Life unchanging, everlasting, eternal?-What is it but death-death without rebirth?” ― The Farthest Shore, 1972

“I never knew anybody . . . who found life simple. I think a life or a time looks simple when you leave out the details.” ― The Birthday of the World and Other Stories, 2002

“Things don’t have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What’s the function of a galaxy? I don’t know if our life has a purpose and I don’t see that it matters. What does matter is that we’re a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.” ― The Lathe of Heaven, 1971

Freedom and truth

“The direction of escape is toward freedom. So what is ‘escapism’ an accusation of?” ― No Time to Spare: Thinking about what Matters, 2017

“Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth.” ―The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

“Change is freedom, change is life. It’s always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don’t make changes, don’t risk disapproval, don’t upset your syndics. It’s always easiest to let yourself be governed.” ― The Dispossessed, 1974

“But need alone is not enough to set power free: there must be knowledge.” ― A Wizard of Earthsea, 1968

“Truth is a matter of the imagination.” ― The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

“Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.” ―  The Tombs of Atuan, 1970

“Belief is the wound that knowledge heals.” — The Telling, 2000

Love

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” ― The Lathe of Heaven, 1971

What is love of one’s country; is it hate of one’s uncountry? Then it’s not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That’s a good thing, but one mustn’t make a virtue of it, or a profession.” — The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

“A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing profound hurt.” — The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

The metaphor of dragons

“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.”  — The Wave in the Mind: Talks & Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination, 2004 

“But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them.”  ― A Wizard of Earthsea, 1968

“And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet I would remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.” ― The Farthest Shore, 1972

Evil

“It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.” ― A Wizard of Earthsea, 1968

“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.” ― The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, 1973

Change and uncertainty

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”  ― The Dispossessed, 1974

“To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.”  — The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969

“We’re each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?” ― The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, 1975

You might also like:

Quotes by Ursula Le Guin on Writing, Reading, and Storytelling

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

The post Life, Love, Freedom, and Dragons: Quotes by Ursula Le Guin appeared first on Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life.

Classical Principles for Modern Design by Thomas Jayne

Classical Principles for Modern Design: Lessons from Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman’s The Decoration of Houses by Thomas Jayne (The Monacelli Press, 2018) shines a new light on the influence of Edith Wharton’s first published book. To the reading public, it may be a surprise that the Pulitzer Prize-winning author co-wrote one of the most influential books on interior design.

Before Edith Wharton gingerly stepped into the realm of fiction, she collaborated with architect Ogden Codman on The Decoration of Houses. First published in 1897, Wharton and Codman overturned the era of heavy-handed Victorian home decor. Their directives called for a more streamlined, comfortable approach that didn’t drown the architecture of rooms and emphasized symmetry and balance.

Photo: Don Freeman

How much of Wharton and Codman’s advice and how many of their principles are still applicable today? In Classical Principles for Modern Design (The Monacelli Press, 2018), Thomas Jayne argues that Wharton and Codman’s ideas about the proportion and planning of space create the most harmonious and livable interiors, whether traditional or contemporary. His authoritative and engaging text traces contemporary ideas about design elements and furnishing rooms back to The Decoration of Houses and shows where his design approach coincides and where it diverges from their views.

The book follows the chapter organization of The Decoration of Houses — chapters on walls, doors, windows, curtains, ceilings and floors, etc. — and adds important new perspectives on the design of kitchens and use of color, both major subjects that Wharton and Codman did not address.

Captured in lush photographs by Don Freeman and others, all speak to Thomas Jayne’s commitment to the primacy of function, quality, and simplicity, derived from the ancient tradition of classical design. As he says, “Tradition is not about what was. Tradition is now.”

Photo: Don Freeman

A brief excerpt from Classical Principles for Modern Design by Thomas Jayne

The following excerpt is from Classical Principles for Modern Design by Thomas Jayne, The Monacelli Press, 2018. Reprinted by permission of the publisher:

First published in 1897, Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr.’s The Decoration of Houses is the level-headed, indispensable book on the subject, about which much has been written over the decades. It’s not an overstatement to say that it is the most important decorating book ever written — and there have been many since.

The Decoration of Houses is like scripture: it is sometimes called the Bible of interior decorating.  Like all scared texts, it bears regular reading and rereading to find its meaning. This book is my response, as a practicing decorator, to their work.

Photo: Don Freeman

Wharton is well known to us now as a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who was sui generis — self-taught and educated, a true autodidact who was able to fully imagine the interior worlds of her largely upper-crust characters. It is with good reason that The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and The Age of Innocence are still required reading.

But when The Decoration of Houses came out, Wharton hadn’t yet written a novel, and Codman was just beginning a career as an architect. Codman is certainly the lesser known of the pair, a child of privilege and a distant cousin of Wharton. See brought a practical, working knowledge of design to their collaboration, and interior design was really his strong suit. They first interacted professionally when he was hired to work on her house in Newport, Rhode Island. Years later, he helped her design her Berkshires home, The Mount.

… Wharton and Codman’s book is an elegantly stated argument about the primacy of function, quality, and simplicity, derived from the ancient tradition of classical  design.

About Thomas Jayne

AD 100 designer Thomas Jayne is founder and principal of Jayne Design Studio. His interiors reflect his passion and wide-ranging knowledge of classical traditions and his quest to further those traditions within contemporary design. He is the author of the highly successful The Finest Rooms in America: Fifty Influential Interiors from the Eighteenth Century to the Present and American Decoration: A Sense of Place, a monograph on the work of Jayne Design Studio (both published by The Monacelli Press).

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Visiting The Mount — Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox, MA

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