The Star In The Window

by Olive Higgins Prouty

"As she sat and sewed this afternoon she kept her face steadfastly turned away from the familiar details of the room behind her. It was an ugly room. It was the back-parlor made over into a bedroom for her mother, who couldn't go over the stairs. It was square and high-studded, h'eavily corniced in dark brown plas ter, and in the center of the ceiling there was a rosette, round and ornate, which suggested the summer canna beds. From it hung a heavy glass chandelier, with six bronze arms, holding up six white frosted globes. In one corner of the room stood the bed - black wal nut, solid and substantial, its pillows covered with hand - crocheted shams, red-initialed in the center. Over the bed, suspended from the ceiling and fastened to the ..."

348 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Though Olive Higgins Prouty is primarily remembered as a romance novelist, she was also a poet, writing her poetry whenever and wherever she could. Her poems were never published during her lifetime, as they were much more intimate writings than the novels she wrote professionally. Perhaps because she could put more of herself into her poetry than in her novels, Prouty’s poems are powerful and emotional, revealing ideas radical for the time in which they were written. Her children, Richard Prouty and Jane Chapin, published her poems in a very limited release in 1997.

Prouty was born in Worcester in 1882 to Katherine Chapin and Milton Prince Higgins, who would raise one of Worcester’s most prominent, and one of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s most important, families. The Higgins family residence was at the corner of West Street and Salisbury Street, where WPI’s Goddard Hall now stands. Prouty spent most of her childhood deeply connected to WPI as her father was superintendent of the Washburn shops and supervised its very construction. Milton and Katherine Higgins had four children in total, all of whom would go on to make generous contributions to WPI, including Higgins Laboratories, Higgins House, Sanford Riley Hall, a scholarship, and a library fund. Milton Higgins was not only prominent in the development of WPI, but he was also an entrepreneur, buying the Norton Emery Wheel Co. with George Alden in 1885 and serving as its president until his death in 1912.

Prouty’s mother was also an active member of the growing Worcester community. Katherine was the superintendent of the Sunday school at the First Congregational Church and insisted upon Olive joining the church at age thirteen. Katherine was also the founder of the Parent Teachers Association, having spoken in many states for the PTA throughout her lifetime.

Prouty was close to her parents despite their busy professional lives, and speaks of her time in Worcester and at WPI with great fondness. Though she had an early interest in rhyme, Prouty did not have much early success at school, and the anxiety that resulted was a precursor to nervous troubles that would come later in her life.

Nevertheless, Olive Higgins graduated from Smith College in 1904 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and returned to Worcester determined to start a writing career. Prouty feared that her marriage to Lewis Prouty would hinder her attempts to write professionally, but Lewis turned out to be supportive and introduced Olive to the editor who would publish her first stories. The Proutys moved to Brookline, Massachusetts soon after their marriage in June, 1907.

Prouty’s first novel Bobbie, General Manager was published in 1913. She tried to keep up with her writing, but by 1920 Prouty was feeling more and more torn between her writing and her duties to her family. As the Proutys were quite prosperous, Olive had trouble balancing the social obligations that came with prosperity with her family obligations and still having time to write. When her third daughter Anne died in 1919, she decided to devote herself to the care of her children.

Prouty’s youngest daughter Olivia was very dear to her, possibly more so than her other two surviving children. In both her published and unpublished works, she rarely mentioned Richard or Jane, but she wrote quite a bit about Olivia. Olivia’s death in 1923 of encephalitis devastated Prouty, and the nervous breakdown that resulted led her to spend some time at the Riggs Foundation in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Austen Fox Riggs, encouraged her to treat her writing professionally, and Prouty was immeasurably grateful for the new freedom that afforded her.

Stella Dallas, one of Prouty’s most famous works, was published around this time. It was eventually made into a play in 1924, then a radio serial, and then its first movie incarnation in 1925. In 1937 it was remade with Barbara Stanwyck, and Be

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, perhaps because I could identify with the heroine. I know how hard it is to break out of a cocoon/shell as the heroine attempts to do, and I could relate to the reserve that hinders her progress.

When [her family] began removing life-long restraints from Reba they observed her as eagerly as if (instead of being anything so ruled by the laws of nature as a girl, or even a rose) she were a magical Japanese flower that had only to be dropped into a glass of water to unfold into marvelous beauty.
…
In spite of long skirts and turned-up hair, removed restrictions, summer-resorts full of young people, diamond bracelets, gold watches and chains, Reba would not unfold. Occasionally one finds a Japanese flower that refuses to bloom in the water. It has been too tightly compressed. So had Reba.

I appreciate the strength she shows as she forges a path to independence, despite her family's attempts to stop her. I appreciate that she never turns her back on her family, instead returning to them on her own terms. I also love how the hero works to change and improve himself so that he can be worthy of the heroine. He was so sensitive to her wishes and believed her so far above him, that at times I felt he deserved better than a heroine who thought so meanly of him. Happily she redeems herself in the end. I wish all of Olive Higgins Prouty's works—especially the Vale series—were available in eBooks. I really admire the heart and depth of her writing.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heroine is meek and slightly dull--"like a bell that has never been rung"--but after 100 pages or so of inaction, the heroine finally transcends her state of listless resignation, and then we’re off! Prouty is a great story-teller. What I found particularly interesting was learning about life for a young single woman (an "old maid" by her generation's standards) circa 1916. (Incidentally, Prouty’s main characters always have mother issues—I’m thinking of Charlotte Vale—but in this book, this aspect is faint. It's the aunt who's domineering and narrow-minded, seeing everything in terms of convention, household arrangements, content to be comfortable while making all around them miserable.)