The Women Who Make Our Novels


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4.5 stars; 2 reviews)

”This book, the rather unpremeditated production of several months’ work, is by a man who is not a novelist and who is therefore entirely unfitted to write about women who are novelists.” The author is a literary reporter and from that perspective he offers a short biographical sketch “of all the living American women novelists whose writing, by the customary standards, is artistically fine . . . [or] whose writing has attained a wide popularity.” This book was published in 1918. (Summary taken from the Introduction by MaryAnn) (10 hr 20 min)

Chapters

00 - Introduction 4:45 Read by MaryAnn
01 - Edith Wharton 14:48 Read by Amanda Friday
02 - Alice Brown 12:46 Read by Amanda Friday
03 - Ellen Glasgow 33:11 Read by Michele Eaton
04 - Gertrude Atherton 22:58 Read by Lynne T
05 - Mary Roberts Rinehart 23:53 Read by MaryAnn
06 - Kathleen Norris 18:43 Read by Vanessa Garcia
07 - Margaret Deland 17:46 Read by Mike Pelton
08 - Gene Stratton-Porter 30:34 Read by Daryl Wor
09 - Eleanor H. Porter 21:41 Read by Lynne T
10 - Kate Douglas Wiggin 18:23 Read by TriciaG
11 - Mary Johnston 39:14 Read by Mike Pelton
12 - Corra Harris 20:13 Read by Mike Pelton
13 - Mary Austin 25:33 Read by Lynne Carroll
14 - Mary S. Watts 44:13 Read by Lynne Carroll
15 - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 10:26 Read by Vanessa Garcia
16 - Anna Katharine Green 17:28 Read by Michele Eaton
17 - Helen R. Martin 17:53 Read by MaryAnn
18 - Sophie Kerr 18:29 Read by Emily Maynard
19 - Marjorie Benton Cooke 12:03 Read by Daryl Wor
20 - Grace S. Richmond 12:58 Read by Emily Maynard
21 - Willa Sibert Cather 23:01 Read by TriciaG
22 - Clara Louise Burnham 24:30 Read by Jennifer Dorr
23 - Demetra Vaka 12:43 Read by MaryAnn
24 - Edna Ferber 9:06 Read by TriciaG
25 - Dorothy Canfield Fisher 11:57 Read by Bellona Times
26 - Amelia E. Barr 12:50 Read by Michele Eaton
27 - Alice Hegan Rice 11:42 Read by doonaboon
28 - Alice Duer Miller 10:44 Read by mishsmith
29 - Eleanor Hallowell Abbott 12:59 Read by MaryAnn
30 - Harriet T. Comstock 11:42 Read by Jennifer Dorr
31 - Honore Willsie 23:40 Read by MaryAnn
32 - Frances Hodgson Burnett 17:56 Read by Amanda Friday

Reviews

Thank You!


(4 stars)

This book kept me company while doing my holiday baking. I have listened to it twice in a quest to discover new authors and books for my listening pleasure. The opening years of the Twentieth Century certainly produced a diverse selection of American women authors. While Edna Ferber related the challenges of ordinary working women, Edith Wharton... I don't know what to say about her books. They don't make me laugh or cry. They seem as un-living as portraits, portraits the hold your attention. Mary Roberts Rinehart and Anna Katharine Green entertained with memorable mysteries. They could make me smile. Frances Hodgson Burnett, Gene Stratton-Porter, Eleanor H. Porter and Kate Douglas Wiggin gave the world memorable young characters. As a child, The Secret Garden and Little Princess were my absolute favorite books. I love them still and cannot read either with a tear or two. I have rarely been to Indiana, but have fallen in love with Stratton-Porter's Limberlost. These are the authors I knew best before listening to this book. Many of their novels are available for download. I am grateful for these author sketches. They introduced me to many more authors whose books I desire to read.