A Peculiar Treasure: Autobiography

American Biography

by Edna Ferber

Sparkling with humor and insight, this brilliant autobiography, published in 1938, reads as if it were written yesterday. "Here is her dramatic story, told with wit and humor and compassion, intensity and pride, and always with brilliant reporting." (The New York Times) Edna Ferber began her writing career as a newspaper reporter in Chicago and Milwaukee. She was catapulted into the "literary hall of fame" in 1924 when her book So Big was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Genres: Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction, Autobiography, History

383 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were popular in her lifetime and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).

Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber. At the age of 12, after living in Chicago, Illinois and Ottumwa, Iowa, Ferber and her family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school and briefly attended Lawrence University. She took newspaper jobs at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal before publishing her first novel. She covered the 1920 Republican National Convention and 1920 Democratic National Convention for the United Press Association.

Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons; through this technique, Ferber demonstrated her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty people have the best character.

Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could award 500 stars, this book would get every single one of them. It’s just that great.

Edna Ferber published this in 1938-9, as she watched the world descending into the Nazi chaos that would claim the next decade. But it is more than just a comment on anti-Semitism or oppression. Instead, this is a book about growing up in America and PAYING ATTENTION to all the things that make living in America (and, indeed, on Planet Earth) such a great experience. Ferber doesn’t sugarcoat it. She tells us of the bigots and the narrow-minds; she has encountered injustice and greed in her research of life. It’s all good and all bad and all human. She brings out the questions about what we are going to do about the evil we see around us, but she never acts like she is not in the fight with us, not looking for a way to elevate humanity to our potential.

I’ve read a number of Ferber’s books, and I love them. But this autobiography is maybe her best piece of writing ever. She shares with us her own journey as a writer: her background, her processes, her strengths and weaknesses. She also shares what it is like to be a fully engaged citizen who is watching what goes on in the world and learning from and about it all. I can’t help but think that this would be a great textbook to use in teaching classes on writing, critical thinking, civic engagement, and all-around communication. She develops it all.

I can’t recommend this book enough. What a treasure!

[Jenny Shipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Edna grew up in the late 1800s in little towns in middle America, often the only Jewish family in the area. That alone was hard. Always interesting to me to hear what people remember about their beginnings. SHE was a woman of the times, beginning to just break out of the old female roles. At 17 she wanted to be a newspaper reporter. With malice, they assigned her to cover the night court proceedings. A virginal, sheltered girl with a big ribbon in her hair, heard about prostitution, rape, drugs and other violence. She learned and stood up to it. She kept working and then became a writer. I love her descriptions about how she wrote a book. A phrase or even a word would set off a bell in her head and she knew what she had to write about next. This book was published in 1938 and there is a painful little riff running through the book about the horror of Hitler and the antisemitism of Germany at that time. And, Jeeze, the war and the camps hadn't even started yet, I wanted to say "Look out! It's worse than you could ever have dreamed!" but it is 1938 in her time and she is just telling it like she sees it. She wrote the story on which the musical Showboat was based.

[CindySR · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobio is well named but there are so many treasures here, not just one. Ferber was born in the late 1800s and she traveled extensively. She saw and appreciated a pre-war Europe. She knew and worked with so many famous people. She describes the life of a writer and a playwright bringing several plays and novels to fruition. She thought of America as a treasure, her Jewish heritage as a treasure and her life as a writer a treasure. I think she is an underrated American treasure.

The story ends before WW2 breaks out and before she writes my favorite Ferber, GIANT. There is a second called A Kind of Magic written in 1963. Gotta hunt that one down.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this book took me a little while to get through. It is fairly long. I enjoyed it immensely but at the same time it did seem to ramble on at times. I also found myself asking questions that she never seemed to answer. She was thorough about her life but at the same time not really. I did find her commentary on life and the world and history very interesting. However, I finished the book wanting to know more facts about her life, not just her insight.

I really love this author and have read everything of hers I can find. So if you feel the same, then this is worth the read.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edna Ferber has fascinated me for years. Who is this woman who wrote these enormous stories? I started to read the biography written by her niece, but it wasn't long before I had to find Edna's own version. Written in 1938, it is not only exhaustive, but surprisingly modern.

Here are my major takeaways.

1)I have rarely (if ever) heard a woman be so frank about her feelings toward men and marriage. Ferber's lifelong independence is truly intoxicating. She must have seemed very dangerous.

2) She presents a portrait of life in America and abroad in between wars. Chicago, New York, London, Spain, and Paris -- we will never again see them the way she did. Her reminiscences of post WWI Germany will break your heart.

3) Ferber lived the immigrant's dream. Her parents were bold enough to move to new towns in the Midwest and start up businesses even in the face of antisemitism. Their work ethic and familial bonds were profound.

4) She is a proud Jew and never afraid to tell those in her company, no matter how vile or hateful they are. She even published an anti-semitic "fan" letter that sounds a lot like haters on Twitter (X) today. It's a bold shout of racial dignity that still inspires.

5) Ferber dreamed big and her stories were huge. But even with all her success, she was still pilloried by her subjects. The residents of Oklahoma spewed hate at her until her book, "Cimarron," gave them notoriety. Then they changed their attitude. Fame has always been a bitch.

6) Her writing routine is the same as any other writer: write, eat, write, walk, sleep. She doesn't conceal the hard work behind the publications.

7) I think she wrote another edition of memoirs. I hope so, because we haven't even gotten to the publication of "Giant" yet!

Edna Ferber is a writer who deserves to be remembered. What a life. Loved this.

[Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A peculiar book, by a peculiar author (yes, I am equivocating on the word). Edna Ferber is a thoughtful and thought-provoking woman, if not possessing perfect wisdom. Her writing style combines a dry witty humor with too many dry details. In this autobiography, however, Ferber has less of the latter.

Being a Jew--and a proud one in 1938--Ferber certainly has an interesting perspective. A correct one? Not always, as she is a curiously non-religious person (and yet she believes in God ... I'm not saying she and people like her have the most logical lives) and does not really understand the true reason for Jewish persecution. Nor the reason for the endurance of Jews through such persecution.

Nevertheless, she has some good insights here and there. And she sprinkles it with a humor which I very much appreciate. At times I was quite surprised at her understanding toward Hitler's Germany--and this in 1938! She seemed, if I may use the colloquialism, "ahead of her time." And yet completely unaware of how the future world would play out.

One of my favorites parts of the book is Ferber's descriptions of the small-town newspaper. I gained real insight into how and why certain pieces of "news" (but more accurately gossip pieces, not unlike the social media updates of today) appear in the newspaper--pieces that resemble hundreds that I've read myself. Not much changes between the early 1900s and the 1940s!

Ferber also provides plenty of indirect writing advice; although the publishing atmosphere has certainly changed since the first half of the 20th century, her skills as a writer have definite origins, and those origins could--and probably should--be adapted to the writer's life of today.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A woman before her time

I read this book in order to gain a few years of Appleton-WI history, around the turn of the century, 1900. I received that and so much more. Edna was amazing. I wish I could write her a letter, but I'd hardly like updating her on world events since she published. Now to read her account of life from WWII onward, to 1967. Then I'll continue until I've read all of her novels, not just three.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming autobiography by the critically and popularly successful author of So Big and Show Boat and playwriting collaborator of George S. Kaufman. Ferber is largely forgotten these days, but some years ago, my mother mentioned this memoir as particularly influential to her, and I can understand why: modest high school-educated Midwestern girl stumbles into newspaper writing and eventually makes good. An aspect of Ferber that is less apparent in her novels is her Jewish heritage; writing here, in 1939, she is forthright in her defense of Jews already subject to six years of oppression in German Europe.

[Herb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, the first volume of Edna Ferber's memoirs, is a real walk in the past. It ends midway in her fascinating life, to be picked up by a companion volume over twenty years later. The author of "Show Boat," "Giant," and "So Big" led just as interesting a life as her many famed characters.

[Jaclynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

an endearing,personal account of a well loved newspaper woman,author, playwright and commentator of our countries "mindset" 1900-1950's

[Sharone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ferber is a national treasure, and viewing the 20th century through her eyes and experiences is fascinating. I might become a Ferber evangelist.