A Woman of Genius

by Mary Hunter Austin, Nancy Porter (Afterword)

First published in 1912, this novel draws its inspiration directly from Austin's own life and experiences as a talented woman—in the novel, an actress—whose pursuit of a career places her in conflict with the values of a midwestern town. The hero's decision to leave a dull husband to pursue a career, and her rise to fame, are portrayed against the background of the cramping social order of the time.

Genres: Fiction, Womens, Literary Fiction, American, Classics

321 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1993

About the author

Mary Hunter Austin was a prolific novelist, poet, critic, and playwright, as well as an early feminist, conservationist, and defender of Native American and Spanish-American rights and culture.

After graduating from Blackburn College in 1888, she moved with her family to California and established a homestead in the San Joaquin Valley. She married Stafford Wallace Austin In 1891 and they lived in various towns in California’s Owens Valley before separating in 1905.

One of the early nature writers of the American Southwest, her popular book The Land of Little Rain (1903) describes the fauna, flora and people of the region between the High Sierra and the Mojave Desert of southern California. She said, "I was only a month writing ... but I spent 12 years peeking and prying before I began it."

After visiting Santa Fe in 1918, Austin settled there in 1924. She helped establish The Santa Fe Little Theatre (still operating today as The Santa Fe Playhouse). She was also active in preserving the local culture of New Mexico, establishing the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in 1925.

In 1929, she co-authored a book, Taos Pueblo, with photographer Ansel Adams. It was printed in 1930 in a limited edition of only 108 copies. It is now quite rare because it included actual photographs made by Adams rather than reproductions.

She is best known for her nature classic Land of Little Rain (1903) and her play The Arrow Maker (1911).

Reviews

[Velvetink]

kindle

[Joe Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book although it's rather dated in several ways.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very early feminist work, 1912.

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this were to be as full an account of my Art as it is of myself, I should have to stop here and try to have you understand how at this time I was all awash in the fluid stuff of it, buoyed and possessed by unknowledgable splendours, heroisms, tendernesses, a shifty glittering flood. I am always checked in my attempt to render this submerged childhood of mine by the recollection of my mother in the midst of the annoyance which any reference to it always caused her, trying judicially to account for it on the basis of my having read too much, with the lurking conviction at the bottom of all comment that a few more spankings might have effectually counteracted it. But though I read more than the other children, there was never very much to read in Taylorville at any time, and no amount of reading could have put into my mind what I found there—the sustaining fairy wonder of the world.

After reading some of Austin's nonfiction, I thought a novel might include some of her interesting insight and descriptiveness, but was disappointed. Feminist themes about following dreams from an oppressive society were slightly interesting, but overall, has not held up well.

It interests me greatly to undertake this book, of which I have said in the title as much as a phrase may of the scope of the undertaking, for if I know anything of genius it is wholly extraneous, derived, impersonal, flowing through and by. I cannot tell you what it is, but I hope to show you a little of how I was seized of it, shaped; what resistances opposed to it; what surrenders. I mean to put as plainly as possible how I felt it fumbling at my earlier life like the sea at the foot of a tidal wall, and by what rifts in the structure of living, its inundation rose upon me; by what practices and passions I was enlarged to it, and by what well meaning of my friends I was cramped and hardened. But of its ultimate operation once it had worked up through my stiff clay, of triumphs, profits, all the intricacies of technique, gossip of rehearsals, you shall hear next to nothing. This is the story of the struggle between a Genius for Tragic Acting and the daughter of a County Clerk, with the social ideal of Taylorville, Ohianna, for the villain.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morality and love, and how to reconcile them in early twentieth century society. The ideas of what is right set by convention rather than higher observances of what is wrong and right, which continues to this day. The struggle of a woman whose own morality is derived from the generations preceding her own, and the significance of her defiance of those traditions. Keeping the ideal but unable to blend marital love and art harmoniously. Ahhhh.

[Paula Asensi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3'5

The main theme of the novel, a woman pursuing a career as an actress, is quite interesting and revolutionary for its time. But what I did not enjoy so much is Austin's style, extremely outdated and difficult to follow at times. She makes up for it though with disturbing, powerful images about the effects of unwanted marriage and motherhood.