- Gertrude Atherton
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (
October 30 ,1857 –June 14 ,1948 ) was an Americanwriter .Biography
She was born in
San Francisco and lived inCalifornia all her life. She eloped with George H.B. Atherton when she was only 19, and had two children. Her husband discouraged her writing; and the serial publication of her first novel, "The Randolphs of Redwoods" (1882), though unsigned, scandalized her family.After her husband's death, in 1887, she was free to pursue her writing career as a protégée of
Ambrose Bierce , eventually writing 60 books and numerous articles and short stories. Atherton's first signed novel, "What Dreams May Come", was published in 1888 under the pseudonym Frank Lin.She is best remembered for her "California Series," several novels and short stories dealing with the social history of California. The series includes "The Splendid, Idle Forties" (1902); "The Conqueror" (1902), which is a fictionalized biography of
Alexander Hamilton ; and her sensational, semi-autobiographical novel "Black Oxen" (1923), about a middle-aged woman who miraculously becomes young again after glandular therapy.Her novels often feature strong heroines who pursue independent lives, undoubtedly a reaction to her stifling married life. "The Foghorn," written in 1933, is a psychological horror story that has been compared to
The Yellow Wallpaper .Bibliography
* "Hermia Suydam" (1889)
* "What Dreams May Come" (1889)
* "Los Cerritos" (1890)
* "A Questions of Time" (1891)
* "The Doomswoman" (1893)
* "Before the Gringo Came" (1894)
* "A Whirl Asunder" (1895)
* "His Fortunate Grace" (1897)
* "Patience Sparhawk and Her Times" (1897)
* "American Wives and English Husbands" (1898)
* "The Californian" (1898)
* "The Valiant Runaways" (1898)
* "The Aristocrats" (1901)
* "The Splendid Idle Forties: Stories of Old California" (1902)
* "Mrs. Pendleton's Four-in-Hand" (1903)
* "Senator North" (1903)
*"Rulers of Kings" (1904)
*"The Bell in the Fog, and Other Stories" (1905)
*"The Travelling Thirds" (1905)
*"Rezanov" (1906)
*"Ancestors" (1907)
*"The Gorgeous Isle" (1908)
*"Tower of Ivory" (1910)
*"Julia France and Her Times" (1912)
*"Perch of the Devil" (1914)
*"Life in the War Zone" (1916)
*"Mrs. Belfame" (1916)
*"The Living Present" (1917) - "Book I: French Women in Wartime; Book II: Feminism in Peace and War"
*"The White Morning: a Novel of the Power of the German Women in Wartime" (1918)
*"The Avalanche: A Mystery Story" (1919)
*"The Sisters-in-Law: A Novel of Our Times" (1921)
*"Sleeping Fires" (1922)
*"Black Oxen" (1923)
*"A Daughter of the Vine" (1923)
*"The Crystal Cup" (1925)
*"Dido: Queen of Hearts" (1929)
*"The Sophisticates" (1931)
*"Adventures of a Novelist" (1932)
*"The Foghorn: Stories" (1934)
*"California: An Intimate History" (1936)
*"Golden Peacock" (1936)
*"The Immortal Marriage" (1937)
*"Can Women Be Gentlemen" (1938)
*"The House of Lee" (1940)
*"The Horn of Life" (1942)
*"The Conqueror" (1943)
*"Golden Gate Country" (1945)
*"My San Francisco" (1946)ources
* Leider, Emily Wortis, "California's Daughter. Gertrude Atherton and her Times", Stanford U.P. 1991
* [http://www.online-literature.com/gertrude-atherton/ The Literature Network]
* Preface to [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8535 The Sisters-in-Law]
* Laing, Alexander, ed. "The Haunted Omnibus", 1965External links
*gutenberg author|id=Gertrude_Atherton|name=Gertrude Atherton
* [http://www.shortstoryarchive.com/a/gertrude_atherton.html Gertrude Atherton: Short Stories]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=41 Gertrude Atherton's Photo & Gravesite]
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