Ellen Glasgow: A Biography (Paperback)

~ (Author) "ELLEN GLASGOW (1873-1945), one of the twentieth century's most acclaimed women novelists, lived her life in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy..." (more)
Key Phrases: romantic comedians, successful failure, barren ground, Ellen Glasgow, New York, One West Main (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although she was the prolific author of poetry, short stories, criticism and 20 novels (including the 1942 Pulitzer Prize winner, In This Our Life), Virginia-born Glasgow (1872-1945) feared rightly that in time she would be considered merely a regional writer or a minor novelist of manners. In this solidly documented, sympathetic portrayal of a famously secretive woman, Goodman (Edith Wharton's Inner Circle) seeks to revive Glasgow's reputation as a writer and important influence on fellow Southerners Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty and William Faulkner. Having set herself the task of writing a social history of her state, Glasgow began with the publication of her first novel at the age of 24. She broke with the Southern tradition of romanticizing the past, and instead wrote realistic descriptions of the rise of the middle class and industrialization of the early 20th century. But while she was considered progressive in her time, Glasgow seems dated now, both in her treatment of women and blacks and in her use of written dialect ("Dat's de tribble wid dis yer worl'; w'en hit changes yo' fortune hit don' look ter changin' yo' skin as well"). Although insecure and isolated by her growing deafness, Glasgow tirelessly pursued literary fame, cultivating friendships with influential critics and publishers. Why then "did her literary coin rise with each novel and then fall almost as far as a Confederate dollar?" asks Goodman, paraphrasing Glasgow's friend James Branch Cabell,"because each of her books showed the influence of current trends...[and] subsequent shifts in literary fashions tended to hide their 'real merits as works of art.'" 29 illustrations.-- subsequent shifts in literary fashions tended to hide their 'real merits as works of art.'" 29 illustrations.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Ellen Glasgow (1873-1958), arguably one of the most important Southern writers of her day and the winner of the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for In This Our Life, is nonetheless not well known. Born to a large and wealthy Richmond family, Glasgow felt that she and her family were cursed?she herself lost her hearing at a young age?and this deep pessimism is reflected in her fiction. Goodman (Edith Wharton's Inner Circle, LJ 5/15/94) has written a competent, well-researched, but somewhat sterile biography of a woman who is hard to pigeon-hole. For example, Glasgow considered herself a progressive on the issue of race, yet, as Goodman points out, her treatment of African Americans in her fiction is a mixture of antebellum naivete and romanticism. Like her contemporaries Willa Cather and Edith Wharton, to whom she was often compared, Glasgow had a true gift for capturing the social aura of a certain fleeting period in American history. With an impressive bibliography of primary sources; recommended for large public and academic libraries.?Diane Gardner Premo, P.L., Rochester, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; illustrated edition edition (February 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801873142
• ISBN-13: 978-0801873140
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #231,719 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)