Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (October 30, 1857 – June 14, 1948) was an American author.
[ Paterson, Isabel, "Gertrude Atherton: A Personality"
The Bookman'', New York, February 1924, (pgs. 632-636)] Many of her novels are set in her home state of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. Her bestseller ''Black Oxen'' (1923) was made into a
silent movie of the same name. In addition to novels, she wrote short stories, essays, and articles for magazines and newspapers on such issues as feminism, politics, and war.
Early life
Gertrude Franklin Horn was born on October 30, 1857, in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
, to Thomas Ludovich Horn and his wife, the former Gertrude Franklin. Her father had become a prominent citizen in San Francisco as a tobacco merchant, although he originally hailed from Stonington, Connecticut. Her mother was from New Orleans. Her parents separated in 1860 when she was two years old, and she was raised by her maternal grandfather, Stephen Franklin, a devout
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
and a relative of
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...
.
Grandfather Franklin insisted she be well read, and this influenced her greatly. She attended St. Mary's Hall high school in
Benicia, California
Benicia ( , ) is a waterside city in Solano County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It served as the capital of California for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 26,997 at th ...
, and, briefly, the
Sayre School
Sayre School is an independent, private, co-educational school in Lexington, Kentucky, US. The school enrolls 610 students from age two through twelfth grade. It has 68 full-time faculty members.
History
David A. Sayre, a New Jersey silversmith, ...
in Lexington, Kentucky.
Gertrude moved back to Kentucky to live with her grandfather and mother after her aunt refused to house her any longer because of her rebelliousness. There she met George H.B. Atherton, son of
Faxon Atherton, who was courting her mother.
He became more interested in daughter Gertrude, and after she accepted his sixth proposal, they eloped on February 15, 1876.
[Dowd, Katie (October 9, 2018)]
"A body in the rum barrel: The true story behind San Francisco's booziest, weirdest ghost"
''San Francisco Chronicle''. She went to live with him and his domineering
Chilean mother. Gertrude found life in the
Atherton mansion in San Francisco and on their Fair Oaks estate, now
Atherton, California
Atherton () is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population was 7,188 as of 2020.
Atherton is known for its wealth; in 1990 and 2019, Atherton was ranked as having the highest per capita income among U.S. ...
, stultifying. As a result of her disappointment with the marriage she began to develop an independent life.
Two tragedies changed her life dramatically: Her son George died of
diphtheria
Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...
, and her husband died at sea. She was left alone with their daughter Muriel and needed to support herself.
Her mother in law agreed to raise Muriel and give her the inheritance that would have gone to George.
[
Atherton later told an interviewer that the books that had influenced her the most were ]Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (, 21 April 1828 – 5 March 1893) was a French historian, critic and philosopher. He was the chief theoretical influence on French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism and one of the first practitio ...
's "History of English Literature" and the books of Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression " survival of the f ...
.
Career
Nineteenth century
Atherton's first publication was "The Randolphs of Redwood: A Romance", serialized in ''The Argonaut
''The Argonaut'' was a newspaper based in San Francisco, California from 1878 to 1956. It was founded by Frank Somers, and soon taken over by Frank M. Pixley, who built it into a highly regarded publication. Under Pixley's stewardship it was c ...
'' in March 1882 under the pseudonym Asmodeus. When she revealed to her family that she was the author, it caused her to be ostracized. In 1888, she left for New York, leaving Muriel with her grandmother. She traveled to London, and eventually returned to California. Atherton's first novel, ''What Dreams May Come'', was published in 1888 under the pseudonym Frank Lin.
In 1889, she went to Paris at the invitation of her sister-in-law Alejandra Rathbone (married to Major Jared Lawrence Rathbone). That year, she heard from British publisher G. Routledge and Sons that they would publish her first two books. William Sharp wrote in ''The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...
'' praising her fiction and would later invite Atherton to stay with him and his wife, Elizabeth, in South Hampstead.
In London, she had the opportunity through Jane Wilde to meet her son, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
. She recalled in her memoir ''Adventures of a Novelist'' (1932) that she made an excuse to avoid the meeting because she thought he was physically repulsive. In an 1899 article for '' London's Bookman'', Atherton wrote of Wilde's style and associated it with "the decadence, the loss of virility that must follow over-civilization."
Also in London she met a young Winston Churchill, who said that he liked her novels. Soon she found out that Churchill was disappointed that she did not return the compliment - she was not aware of his writing..
She returned to California in 1890 at the death of her grandfather Franklin and her mother-in-law Dominga Atherton, and she resumed taking care of Muriel. In 1891, while writing a weekly column for ''The San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
'', she met Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...
, with whom she carried on a taunting, almost love-hate friendship.
When Kate Field
Mary Katherine Keemle "Kate" Field (pen name, Straws, Jr.; October 1, 1838 – May 19, 1896) was an American journalist, correspondent, editor, lecturer, and actress, of eccentric talent. She never married. She seemed ready to give an opinion ...
remarked on California writers' neglect of the picturesque and romantic old Spanish life of the state, Atherton explored the history and culture of Spanish California in Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
, San Juan Bautista, Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
, San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly hal ...
, and Santa Barbara.[ She became a member of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association.
She wrote ''The Doomswoman'' in 1892, and it was published in '' Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' before being published in book form in 1893. The story (set in the 1840s) focuses on Chonita Moncada y Iturbi and her love of Diego Estenega (modeled after ]Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Don (honorific), Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (4 July 1807 – 18 January 1890) was a Californios, Californio general, statesman, and public figure. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of the Republic of ...
), as he dreams of modernizing California, retaining its Mexican character without sacrificing American economic vigor. Chonita is Catholic, and her faith stands in the way of Diego's political ambitions. The dramatic climax peaks when Diego kills Chonita's brother, Reynaldo, and she is forced to choose between her cultural loyalty or the love of her life. The plot of the novel closely resembles that of ''Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Ham ...
''. The book was successful with critics, some comparing it to Helen Hunt Jackson
Helen Hunt Jackson (pen name, H.H.; born Helen Maria Fiske; October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. She de ...
's '' Ramona''. Atherton was not pleased with this comparison because Jackson was not from California. However, she was satisfied when Bierce said of ''The Doomswoman'' that it was "in its class... superior to any that any Californian has done".
In 1892, Atherton left for New York. There she wrote for the ''New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...
''. She also wrote letters to Bierce, confiding her loneliness, her dismay at the necessity to do freelance
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...
writing (in particular for the ''New York World''), and her dislike of eastern literary circles. Her distaste came from their belittlement of the West and its authors and the fact they did not accept Bierce's work. While in New York, she published another California novel, ''Before the Gringo Came'' (1894).
She next wrote ''Patience Sparhawk and Her Times, A Novel'' (1897), but it proved to be too controversial. Its rejection encouraged her to leave for London. It was 1898 and John Lane of The Bodley Head
The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...
agreed to publish it, but not for two years. She continued to write, writing book reviews for Oliver Fry's ''Vanity Fair'', and even completed a book-length version of "The Randolphs of Redwood" (retitled ''A Daughter of the Vine'', 1899) while staying in Haworth
Haworth () is a village in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines, south-west of Keighley, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages inc ...
. Max Pemberton asked her to write a 10,000 word essay for a series he was editing for Cassells Pocket Library, which she wrote as ''A Whirl Asunder'' (1895).
Once ''Patience Sparhawk and Her Times, A Novel'' was published, William Robertson Nicoll gave a review of it in the April 12, 1897 edition of '' The Bookman'' that said it was "crude" in its portrayal of a clever young woman with burning interest in life and identified it as a protest against the tame American novel. In the May 15 issue of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the reviewer said that Atherton had "incontestable" ability and a "very original talent" while noting that the book offered a series of "fleshy" episodes in Patience's life that must have scared a sensitive reader.[ It was banned from the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute, and the '']San Francisco Call
''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...
'' review said it represented Atherton's departure from her proper literary goal of treating early California themes romantically
In 1898, she completed ''The Californians'', her first novel in set the post-Spanish era. Critics received this much more positively than ''Patience'', and a review in ''The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...
'' (October 1, 1898) said it "was by far more convincing and attractive in delineating California manners and morals.... The novel fairly establishes her claim to be considered as one of the most vivid and entertaining interpreters of the complex characters of emancipated American womanhood." The November 8 '' Bookman'' said it was her "most ambitious work," which has "a feeling of surety that only the consciousness of knowing one's ground can convey."[
She traveled to ]Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the region of Normandy and the department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population ...
and wrote ''American Wives and English Husbands'' (1898), set in contemporary time. In this novel, she contrasts English and American men, American and English civilizations, and comments on the relationships between men and women. She also completed ''The Valiant Runaways'' (1898), an adventure novel for boys that dealt with the Spanish Mexican attempt to civilize California. In 1899, she returned to the United States.
Twentieth century
Her novel ''Senator North'' (1900) was based on Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...
's senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Eugene Hale.
In a May 1904 article, ''Why Is American Literature Bourgeois?'' in the ''North American Review
The ''North American Review'' (NAR) was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which it was inactive until revived at ...
'', Atherton critiqued William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...
for the "littleism" or "thin" realism of his fiction. Some say that Atherton's novel, ''Julia France and Her Times'' (1912), has a strong feminist subtext, with the titular heroine being a woman needing to earn a living wage. However its view of gender issues is complicated and nuanced: she mentioned "the happy fate of the American woman, who 'had things all her own way,' and to whom man was a slave." (p. 124). She also points out that the Pankhursts' militant brand of suffragism was strongly hated "by the National Union of Woman's Suffrage Socieies, and by Society in general." (p. 298). [Mary Ellen Snodgrass, ''Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature''.
New York, NY : Facts on File, 2013. (p.32-33).]
She is best remembered for her California Series, several novels and short stories dealing with the social history of California. The series includes ''The Splendid, Idle Forties'' (1902); ''The Conqueror'' (1902), which is a fictionalized biography of Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charle ...
; and her sensational, semi-autobiographical novel ''Black Oxen'' (1923), about an aging woman who miraculously becomes young again after glandular therapy. The novel names the areas of a woman's power as youth and vitality, examines the social expectations surrounding them, then prompts women to avoid these conventions. The latter was adapted into the film ''Black Oxen
''Black Oxen'' is a 1923 American silent fantasy / romantic drama film starring Corinne Griffith, Conway Tearle, and Clara Bow. Directed by Frank Lloyd, the film is based on the controversial best-selling 1923 novel of the same name by Gertru ...
'' in 1923. Atherton's earlier novel ''Mrs. Balfame'' (1916) was also adapted to film, as ''Mrs. Balfame'' in 1917. Atherton's ''The Immortal Marriage'' (1927) and ''The Jealous Gods'' (1928) are historical novels set in Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...
.
Atherton wrote several stories of supernatural horror, including the ghost stories "Death and the Woman", and "Crowned with One Crest", as well as "The Foghorn", and the often anthologised "The Striding Place". "The Foghorn", written in 1933, is a psychological horror story that has been compared to "The Yellow Wallpaper
"The Yellow Wallpaper" (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in '' The New England Magazine''. It is regarded as an important early work ...
". W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...
called it a powerful story in a 1943 publication of his, ''Great Modern Reading''.
Style and themes
Atherton was an early feminist well acquainted with the plight of women. She knew "the pain of sexual repression
Sexual repression is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their own sexuality. Sexual repression is often linked with feelings of guilt or shame being associated with sexual impulses. Defining characteristics and practices ass ...
, knew the cost of strength required to escape it (strength some women do not have to spend), knew its scars—the scars that made her wary of emotional commitment and relegated her, despite her professional triumphs and her surpassing benefit to women, to largely an observer role in human relations. She knew the full cost of the destructive battle of the sexes, and urged that it end at last with true sexual equality." Her novels often feature strong heroines who pursue independent lives, undoubtedly a reaction to her stifling married life.
Atherton was often compared to contemporary authors such as Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
and Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...
(James himself assessed Atherton's work and said she had reduced the typical man/woman relationship to a personality clash).[
Atherton presided in her last years over the San Francisco branch of ]PEN
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...
. As her biographer Emily Wortis Leider notes in ''California's Daughter'', however, "under her domination it became little more than a social club that might have been called Friends of Atherton and (Senator) Phelan". A strong advocate of social reform, and the ''grande dame'' of California literature, she yet remained a strong force in the promotion of a California cultural identity. She was a personal friend of Senator James Duval Phelan
James Duval Phelan (April 20, 1861 – August 7, 1930) was an American politician, civic leader, and banker. He served as nonpartisan Mayor of San Francisco from 1897 to 1902. As mayor he advocated municipally run utilities and tried to protect ...
and his nephew, the philanthropist Noel Sullivan, and often was a guest at Phelan's estate, Villa Montalvo
The Montalvo Arts Center is a non-profit center for the arts in Saratoga, California, United States. Open to the public, Montalvo comprises a cultural and arts center, a park, hiking trails and the historic Villa Montalvo, an Italian Mediterra ...
. Among her celebrity friends was travel writer Richard Halliburton
Richard Halliburton (January 9, 1900 – presumed dead after March 24, 1939) was an American travel writer and adventurer who swam the length of the Panama Canal and paid the lowest toll in its history—36 cents in 1928. He disappeared a ...
, who shared her interest in artists' rights, and whose disappearance at sea she lamented. Though she could be offensively assertive with her acerbic wit, notes Gerry Max, she crusaded with dertermination for many of the key intellectual freedom issues of her day, especially those involving women's rights, and remained, throughout a long creative life, a true friend to writers. In his autobiographical novel, Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider ...
speaks of her kindness to him and his wife when they arrived in San Francisco in the late 1920s.
Charlotte S. McClure in a ''Dictionary of Literary Biography
The ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' is a specialist biographical dictionary dedicated to literature. Published by Gale, the 375-volume setRogers, 106. covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods, and genres, with a focus on American ...
'' essay said that Atherton "redefined women's potential and presented a psychological drama of a woman's quest for identity and for a life purpose and happiness within and beyond her procreative function". She also said that ''Patience Sparhawk'' was Atherton's "first significant novel".In an 1898 essay in '' Bookman'', a critic stated:"the amazing and memorable Patience Sparhawk may perhaps be referred to as the first foreshadowing of the good work that thertonhas done since. It seems to have been also generally conceded that no matter what the subject chanced to be . . . nothing from her pen would be commonplace or dull. utthat startling performance n Patience Sparhawkintroduced her to a different audience, one much larger and more seriously interested than she had had before."
Carl van Vechten said of Atherton in a ''Nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by th ...
'' article: "Usually (not always, to be sure), the work of Mrs. Wharton seems to me to be scrupulous, clever and uninspiring, while that of Mrs. Atherton is often careless, sprawling, but inspired. Mrs. Wharton, with some difficulty, it would appear, has learned to write; Mrs. Atherton was born with a facility for telling stories."
In an essay for '' Bookman'', Frederic Taber Cooper
Frederic Taber Cooper Ph.D. (May 27, 1864 – May 20, 1937) was an American editor and writer.
Life
Cooper was born in New York City, graduated from Harvard University in 1886 and obtained an LL.B. from Columbia University in 1887."Fred ...
stated that in ''Senator North'', the character Harriet "is practically a white woman but for a scarcely perceptible blueness at the base of her fingernails, this character of Harriet is perhaps the best bit of feminine analysis that Mrs. Atherton ever did."[
]
Political views
Atherton was a suffragist who did not believe in the use of militancy to further the cause. In 1917 she wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times to express her support for suffrage while voicing her opposition to militancy.
Atherton also advocated white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White ...
.[James Kinney, ''Amalgamation! : race, sex, and rhetoric in the nineteenth-century American novel''. Westport, Connecticut : Greenwood Press, 1985. (pgs. 155-159)] Atherton's novel ''Senator North'' describes a marriage between a "passing" woman of mixed white and African-American ancestry and a white man, which ends in tragedy. ''Senator North'' was intended by Atherton as a warning against Interracial
Interracial topics include:
* Interracial marriage, marriage between two people of different races
** Interracial marriage in the United States
*** 2009 Louisiana interracial marriage incident
* Interracial adoption, placing a child of one raci ...
marriages. In a 1922 '' The Bookman'' article, "The Alpine School of Fiction", Atherton praised the book ''The Passing of the Great Race
''The Passing of the Great Race: Or, The Racial Basis of European History'' is a 1916 racist and pseudoscientific book by American lawyer, self-styled anthropologist, and proponent of eugenics, Madison Grant (1865–1937). Grant expounds a theo ...
'' by Madison Grant
Madison Grant (November 19, 1865 – May 30, 1937) was an American lawyer, zoologist, anthropologist, and writer known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist, and as an advocate of scientific racism. Grant is less noted f ...
, describing it as a "remarkable work, with its warning of tremendous import to civilization".[Jonathan Spiro, ''Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant''. 2009, Lebanon, NH, University of Vermont Press. (p. 176-177)] Atherton claimed that American civilization had been created by the "Nordic" or "Anglo-Saxon" race, and that this was now threatened by an influx of "Alpine" and "Mediterranean" immigrants, who Atherton regarded as inferior to Nordics. Atherton argued that "The old Nordic-American stock is being rapidly bred out by the refuse of Europe." Atherton cited works such as '' Main Street'' by Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
and ''Three Soldiers
''Three Soldiers'' is a 1921 novel by American writer and critic John Dos Passos. It is one of the American war novels of the First World War, and remains a classic of the realist war novel genre.
Background
H. L. Mencken praised the book in ...
'' by John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his ''U.S.A.'' trilogy.
Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a young man, visit ...
as signs of a decline in American literature brought about by the rejection of "Nordic" themes. Atherton's views on race were praised by Thomas Dixon Jr., but strongly criticized by both H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
and Horace Kallen
Horace Meyer Kallen (August 11, 1882 – February 16, 1974) was a German-born American philosopher who supported pluralism and Zionism.
Biography
Horace Meyer Kallen was born on August 11, 1882, in the town of Bernstadt, Prussian Silesia (now Bi ...
.
Following the Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
, Atherton developed a hostility to Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
.[Kirsten Marie Delegard, ''Battling Miss Bolsheviki: The Origins of Female Conservatism in the United States''. ]University of Pennsylvania Press
The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 Ma ...
, 2012. (p. 229) In 1919, Atherton wrote an article for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', (entitled "Time as a cure for Bolshevism") which condemned both the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
and the Americans who sympathized with it. When asked by the League of American Writers
The League of American Writers was an association of American novelists, playwrights, poets, journalists, and literary critics launched by the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in 1935. The group included Communist Party members, and so-called " fell ...
which side she supported in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
, she stated that she supported the Spanish Nationalists
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
-the only author of the 418 the League surveyed who did. In the League pamphlet ''Writers Take Sides'' (collecting the authors' responses), Atherton stated that although she disliked both fascism and communism, she considered communism the greater evil and added, "Although I have no love for Franco, I hope he will mop up the Communists, and send home, with tails between legs, all those gullible Americans who enlisted to save Spanish 'Democracy'". Atherton attended the Democratic National Convention in 1928. In a poll carried out by the ''Saturday Review of Literature
''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Norman Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, ess ...
'' asking writers which Presidential candidate they endorsed in the 1940 election, Atherton was among the writers who endorsed Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...
.
Legacy
Atherton's autobiography, ''Adventures of a Novelist'' (New York: Horace Liveright, 1932), is an account of her life and the people she knew, including Ambrose Bierce and James Phelan. It includes historical reminiscences of San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
She is buried in Cypress Lawn cemetery in Colma, California. In 2009, The Library of America
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...
selected Atherton's story "The Striding Place" for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales.
Selected works
Literature
* ''What Dreams May Come'' (1888), as Frank Lin
*
Hermia Suydam
' (1889)
* ''Los Cerritos, a Romance of the Modern Times'' (1890)
* ''A Question of Time'' (1891)
''The Doomswoman''
(1893)
* ''Before the Gringo Came'' (1894), revised and enlarged as ''The Splendid Idle Forties: Stories of Old California'' (1902)
* ''A Whirl Asunder'' (1895)
* ''His Fortunate Grace'' (1897)
*
Patience Sparhawk and Her Times
' (1897)
* ''American Wives and English Husbands'' (1898)
* ''The Californians'' (1898)
* ''The Valiant Runaways'' (1898)
* ''A Daughter of the Vine'' (1899)
* ''Senator North'' (1900)
* ''The Aristocrats'' (1901)
* ''The Conqueror, Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton'' (1902)
* "The Splendid Idle Forties, Stories of Old California" (1902)
* ''Heart of Hyacinth'' (1903)
*
Mrs. Pendleton's Four-in-Hand
' (1903)
* ''Rulers of Kings'' (1904)
* ''The Bell in the Fog, and Other Stories'' (1905)
* ''The Travelling Thirds'' (1905)
* ''Rezanov'' (1906)
* ''Ancestors'' (1907)
* ''The Gorgeous Isle'' (1908)
* ''Tower of Ivory'' (1910)
* ''Julia France and Her Times'' (1912)
* ''Perch of the Devil'' (1914)
* ''California, An Intimate History'' (1914), revised and enlarged in 1927 and 1971
*
Life in the War Zone
' (1916)
* ''Mrs. Belfame'' (1916)
* ''The Living Present'' (1917) – ''Book I: French Women in Wartime; Book II: Feminism in Peace and War''
* ''The White Morning: a Novel of the Power of the German Women in Wartime'' (1918)
* ''The Avalanche: A Mystery Story'' (1919)
* ''Transplanted'' (1919)
* ''The Sisters-in-Law: A Novel of Our Times'' (1921)
* ''Sleeping Fires'' (1922)
* ''Black Oxen'' (1923)
* ''The Crystal Cup'' (1925)
* ''The Immortal Marriage'' (1927)
* ''The Jealous Gods, A Processional Novel of the Fifth Century B.C. (Concerning One Alcibiades)'' (1928)
* ''Dido: Queen of Hearts'' (1929)
* ''The Sophisticates'' (1931)
* ''Adventures of a Novelist'' (1932)
* ''The story of an elephant named Fritz and Teofilo Barla an Italian cook'' (1934)
* ''The Foghorn: Stories'' (1934)
* ''California: An Intimate History'' (1936)
* ''Golden Peacock'' (1936)
* ''Rezánov and Doña Concha'' (1937)
* ''Can Women Be Gentlemen?'' (1938)
* ''The House of Lee'' (1940)
* ''The Horn of Life'' (1942)
* ''The Conqueror'' (1943)
* ''Golden Gate Country'' (1945, American Folkways series The American Folkways is a 28-volume series of books, initiated and principally edited by Erskine Caldwell, and published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce from 1941 to 1955. Each book focused on a different region, or "folkway", of the United States, inc ...
)
* ''My San Francisco'' (1946)
Plays
* ''Julia France'' (1912)
Films
* ''Don't Neglect Your Wife
''Don't Neglect Your Wife'' is a 1921 American silent drama film directed by Wallace Worsley and starring Mabel Julienne Scott, Lewis Stone and Charles Clary.Connelly p.341
Cast
* Mabel Julienne Scott as Madeline
* Lewis Stone as Langdon Mas ...
'' (1921), screenwriter
Other contributions
*''The Spinners' Book of Fiction'' (wrote: ''Concha Arguëllo, Sister Dominica'')(1907), made to help out her friend Ina Coolbrith
Ina Donna Coolbrith (born Josephine Donna Smith; March 10, 1841 – February 29, 1928) was an American poet, writer, librarian, and a prominent figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary community. Called the "Sweet Singer of California", sh ...
* ''What Is a Book?'' (1935)
''The Lot''
''Photoplay
''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...
'', June 1921, p. 92.
Sources
* Leider, Emily Wortis, ''California's Daughter: Gertrude Atherton and her Times'', Stanford University Press, 1991, quoted p. 313.
The Literature Network
* Preface t
The Sisters-in-Law
* Laing, Alexander, ed. ''The Haunted Omnibus'', 1965
*
* Schley-Ulrich, William. “The Many Faces of Nance O'Neil.” The Hatchet, Peartree Press, June 2018, lizzieandrewborden.com/HatchetOnline/the-many-faces-of-nance-oneil.html.
References
External links
Gertrude Atherton
on Women Film Pioneers Project
*
*
*
*
Online guide to the Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton Collection of Papers
The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
*
Gertrude Atherton Manuscripts
at Dartmouth College Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
1857 births
1948 deaths
19th-century American novelists
19th-century American women writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American novelists
American women novelists
American horror writers
American historical novelists
Women historical novelists
Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Writers from San Francisco
Women horror writers
Ghost story writers
Women film pioneers
American feminist writers
Pseudonymous women writers
California suffrage
19th-century pseudonymous writers
20th-century pseudonymous writers
Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park
Pacific Coast Women's Press Association