Emily, Flittering through Her Father's Garden
In the 1960s, when I was an English major in college, there were no women writers in my favorite field, 19th-century American literature. Oh, yeah, there was Emily Dickinson, but my professor said we didn't have to pay much attention to her; she was just a little virgin who flittered through her father's garden. And Edith Wharton? Well, she really belonged in the 20th century, didn't she?
By the early '80s, in Grad School, I'd had courses in Modern American Poetry (Frost, Eliot, Pound, Williams, Stevens), and then TWO seminars in Williams (William Carlos Williams, that is.) Seeing a pattern here? Then, finally, another course in Modern Poetry--and this time Dickinson was featured--as brilliant, groundbreaking--MODERN! And I was gone, girl, gone! Stunned! Enraptured! Blown away!
For me, Dickinson led to reading other 19th-c. American women writers--yes, there WERE some! Harriet Beecher Stowe! Kate Chopin! Sarah Orne Jewett! Harriet Jacobs! Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth! and on and on. And they were ... GOOD! Different than the men, but ... Good!
My scholarly work then shifted to take these women into consideration, and finally to bring their books back into print! I'm so proud of having been part of that movement--finding forgotten women writers and bringing them back into the canon and the classroom.
And Anna Wheeler, the daring protagonist of THE KASHMIRI SHAWL, my new historical novel, is inspired by those writers! I LOVE her, just as I love the sly, daring poetess, Fanny Osgood, the hilarious (and daring) novelist, Emma Southworth, the heartbreaking (and daring) slave- narrative autobiographer, Harriet Jacobs. On and on. I'm happy to bring those women writers to you in the beleaguered person of Anna Wheeler--and in their own wonderful persons. If you have any questions, just ask me!
By the early '80s, in Grad School, I'd had courses in Modern American Poetry (Frost, Eliot, Pound, Williams, Stevens), and then TWO seminars in Williams (William Carlos Williams, that is.) Seeing a pattern here? Then, finally, another course in Modern Poetry--and this time Dickinson was featured--as brilliant, groundbreaking--MODERN! And I was gone, girl, gone! Stunned! Enraptured! Blown away!
For me, Dickinson led to reading other 19th-c. American women writers--yes, there WERE some! Harriet Beecher Stowe! Kate Chopin! Sarah Orne Jewett! Harriet Jacobs! Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth! and on and on. And they were ... GOOD! Different than the men, but ... Good!
My scholarly work then shifted to take these women into consideration, and finally to bring their books back into print! I'm so proud of having been part of that movement--finding forgotten women writers and bringing them back into the canon and the classroom.
And Anna Wheeler, the daring protagonist of THE KASHMIRI SHAWL, my new historical novel, is inspired by those writers! I LOVE her, just as I love the sly, daring poetess, Fanny Osgood, the hilarious (and daring) novelist, Emma Southworth, the heartbreaking (and daring) slave- narrative autobiographer, Harriet Jacobs. On and on. I'm happy to bring those women writers to you in the beleaguered person of Anna Wheeler--and in their own wonderful persons. If you have any questions, just ask me!
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Elaine
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Oct 15, 2014 07:01AM
The incorporation of early literature written by women into your Karen Pelletier books was one component that really drew me in. Most evident was your scholarly background in these works. Your mysteries truly stand head and shoulders above others in the academic genre. I much enjoyed and learned from THE KASHMIRI SHAWL also. Now to find the time to check on the authors you noted. As an English major in the early seventies, I was not exposed to any of them, with the exception of Dickinson and Stowe, in my coursework.
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Elaine wrote: "The incorporation of early literature written by women into your Karen Pelletier books was one component that really drew me in. Most evident was your scholarly background in these works." I would hope that scholarship and reading pleasure do not cancel each other out! When I did research into women authors such as Emma Southworth and Fanny Osgood, I was struck by the ways in which their lives and works incorporated all the powerful experiences and themes of love, loss, anger, resentment, hope, ambition, and passion that we expect to find in compelling literature. Could it be possible, I asked myself, that because the women's treatment of those themes did not involve deer hunters, whaling captains, and boys rafting the Mississippi River, that early (read, male) scholars simply did not recognize their power? Hmm...The Hidden Hand, Dickinson and the Strategies of Reticence: The Woman Writer in Nineteenth-Century America
