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Constance Fenimore Woolson : portrait of a lady novelist / Anne Boyd Rioux

Author
Rioux, Anne Boyd
Published
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2016]
Copyright Date
©2016
Edition
First edition.
Physical Description
xix, 391 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

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Contents
Machine generated contents note: pt. ONE An Education in Womanhood · (1840--1869) -- 1.A Daughters Country -- 2.Lessons in Literature, Life, and Death -- 3.Turning Points -- pt. TWO An Education in Authorship · (1870--1879) -- 4.False Starts -- 5.Departures -- 6.Dark Places -- pt. THREE A European Experiment · (1879--1886) -- 7.The Old World at Last -- 8.The Artist's Life -- 9.The Expatriate's Life -- pt. FOUR The Bellosguardo Years · (1886--1889) -- 10.Home Found -- 11.Confrere -- 12.Arcadia Lost -- pt. FIVE The Final Years · (1890--1894) -- 13.To Cairo and Back -- 14.Oxford -- 15.The Riddle of Existence -- 16.Aftershocks.
Summary
Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894), who contributed to Henry James's conception of his heroine Isabelle Archer in The Portrait of a Lady, was one of the most accomplished American writers of the nineteenth century. Yet today the best-known facts of her life are her relationship with James and her probable suicide in Venice. Anne Boyd Rioux uncovered new sources in writing this biography that evokes Woolson's dramatic life and reaffirms her literary stature. A grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper, Woolson was born in New Hampshire, but her family's ill fortunes drove them west to Cleveland. Raised to be a conventional woman, Woolson was thrust by her father's death into the role of breadwinner, and yet, as a writer, she reached for critical as much as monetary reward. Known for her realistic stories of post-Civil War American life, Woolson created portrayals of the rural Midwest, Reconstruction-era South, and formerly Spanish Florida. After her invalid mother's death, she moved to Europe, living mostly in England and Italy and spending several months in Egypt. While abroad, she wrote foreign-set stories that presage Edith Wharton's work of the next generation. In this biography, Rioux reveals an artist who pursued and received serious recognition despite the difficulties faced by female authors of her day.
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ISBN
9780393245097 hardcover
0393245098 hardcover
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-369) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 17038141