Virginia Terhune Van de Water (1865–1945) was a writer. Three of her stories were adapted to film: '' If My Country Should Call'' (1916), ''

The Lesson ''The Lesson'' (french: La Leçon) is a one-act play by French-Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco. It was first performed in 1951 in a production directed by Marcel Cuvelier (who also played the Professor). Since 1957 it has been in permanen ...

'' (1917), and '' Two Sisters'' (1929). Vandewater was born in Newark, New Jersey. She was the daughter of author

Mary Virginia Terhune Mary Virginia Terhune (née Hawes, December 21, 1830 – June 3, 1922), also known by her penname Marion Harland, was an American author who was prolific and bestselling in both fiction and non-fiction genres. Born in Amelia County, Virginia, sh ...

and had siblings who also became writers ( Albert Terhune and

Christine Terhune Herrick Christine Terhune Herrick (June 13, 1859 – December 2, 1944) was an American author who wrote mostly about housekeeping.James, Edward T., et alNotable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary Vol. II, p. 188-89 (1971) () She publ ...

). Her story "In the Web of Life" ran in the ''

Los Angeles Herald The ''Los Angeles Herald'' or the ''Evening Herald'' was a newspaper published in Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1873 by Charles A. Storke, the newspaper was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1931. It ...

''. Her book ''From Kitchen to Garret'' (1910) is a guide to housekeeping. Her book ''Why I Left My Husband, and Other Human Documents of Married Life'', a volume of stories originally published in 1912 in '' Good Housekeeping'' and '' The Cosmopolitan'', has been described by the literary critic Susan Fraiman as "a collection of painfully disillusioned tales, unvarnished renderings of marital alienation from multiple perspectives, including that of a daughter driven from home to escape the cross fire." The stories describe various couples, some of whom remain separated and some of whom remain in unhappy marriages, and provide moral and emotional rationalizations for divorce. Towards the end of World War I, two pamphlets by Van de Water, entitled ''Women and Bolshevism'' and ''What the Victory or Defeat of Germany Means to Every American'', were published by the

National Security League The National Security League (NSL) was an American patriotic, nationalistic, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supported a greatly-expanded military based upon universal service, the naturalization and Americanization of immigrants, America ...

Bibliography

*''Why I Left My Husband: And Other Human Documents of Married Life'' (1912), Moffat, Yard and Company, New York *''From Kitchen to Garret'' (1910) *''In the Web of Life'' (1914) *''Two Sisters'' (1914) *''Women and Bolshevism'' (1918)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van de Water, Virginia Terhune 1865 births 1945 deaths Writers from Newark, New Jersey 20th-century American women writers