Mildred Jordan (March 18, 1901 – October 23, 1982) was an American writer and playwright. Born in Chicago, she worked at the

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...

before relocating to

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

after her marriage. Her first novel, ''One Red Rose Forever'', which was based on the history of Lancaster County, was rejected by twenty-two publishers before finally appearing in 1941. Her subsequent books often focused on the lives of

Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...

immigrants to America. Public reaction to Jordan's work was mixed. While a 1954 review of her play ''The Wonderful Cornelia'' referred to her as "one of the nation's best-known novelists",

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

expressed a more ambivalent view of her talents several years later, dismissing her in a sentence as "an unmeetably rich industrialist's wife". In addition to her own writing, Jordan also served as the editor of the ''Berks County Historical Magazine''. She received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from

Albright College Albright College is a private liberal arts college in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1856. History Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when Union Seminary opened. Present-day Albright was formed by the mergers of several ins ...

in 1979. Jordan was represented by the literary agent Annie Laurie Williams, whose other clients included

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

, and

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...

Bibliography

Novels

*''One Red Rose Forever'' (1941) *''Apple in the Attic'' (1942) *''The Shoo-fly Pie'' (1944) *''I Won't, Said the King'' (1945) *''Asylum for the Queen'' (1948) *''Miracle in Brittany'' (1950) *''Echo of the Flute'' (1958)

Plays

*''The Wonderful Cornelia'' (1954) *''Apple in the Attic'' (1962) (with Lucile Logan)

Nonfiction works

*''Proud to be Amish'' (1968) *''The Distelfink Country of the Pennsylvania Dutch'' (1968)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Mildred 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Writers from Chicago Northwestern University alumni Wellesley College alumni 1901 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American women writers Novelists from Illinois

Bibliography

Novels

Plays

Nonfiction works

See also

References