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Ellen Glasgow was born to a prominent Old Virginian
family, in 1873. Deaf since early childhood, and
often in poor health, her mother decided to school
her from home. Her mother would not live to see her
the fruits of her labors--she died when Glasgow was
23.
Glasgow anonymously published her first novel,
The Descendant when she was 24. One year
later she published
Phases of an Inferior Planet.
In 1899, upon returning from a trip overseas, she
met a man in New York, whom she called Gerald
B----in her autobiography. Her intense love for
him, despite the fact that he was a married man,
seem to empower her. Her deafness did not restrict
her as much, and she wrote with new vigor.
Among her works during this time was one of her most
well-known works,
The Voice of the People—
this was the first in a series of novels depicting
the social and political history of Virginia since
1850. The Battle-Ground quickly followed,
as did
The Deliverance,
The Miller of Old Church,
Virginia,
Life and Gabriella, and
One
Man in His Time.
Gerald B died in 1905. Her
sorrow is felt in
The
Romance of a Plain Man.
As
Glasgow matured, her work took on more complex
topics.
Barren Ground, published in 1925 was
met with critical success, as did
Vein of Iron.
In the late twenties and early thirties Glasgow
observed the decline of Southern aristocracy and the
advancement of modern industrial civilization in
three critically praised comedies. In 1941, she
published her last novel,
In This Our Life,
which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
She died in
Richmond, Virginia, on November 21, 1945. Her
memoirs were published posthumously in 1954 as
The Woman Within.
For more books by
and about
Ellen Glasgow
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