Editing Frank Norris (section)

==Life==
Norris was born in [[Chicago]], Illinois, in 1870.<ref>Bernbaum, Ernest (1903). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044017934696;view=1up;seq=67 "Frank Norris,"] ''The Harvard Monthly,'' Vol. 36, p. 57.</ref> His father, Benjamin, was a self-made Chicago businessman and his mother, Gertrude Glorvina Doggett, had a stage career. In 1884 the family moved to [[San Francisco]] where Benjamin went into real estate. In 1887, after the death of his brother and a brief stay in [[London]], young Norris went to [[Académie Julian]] in [[Paris]] where he studied painting for two years and was exposed to the naturalist novels of [[Émile Zola]].<ref>Åhnebrink, Lars. ''The Influence of Émile Zola on Frank Norris'', Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1947.</ref><ref>Hunt, Jonathan P. ''Naturalist Democracy: Literary and Political Representation in the Works of Frank Norris and Émile Zola'', University of California, Santa Cruz, 1996.</ref> Between 1890 and 1894 he attended the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he became acquainted with the ideas of human [[evolution]] of [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] and [[Herbert Spencer|Spencer]] that are reflected in his later writings. His stories appeared in the undergraduate magazine at [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]] and in the ''San Francisco Wave''.  After his parents' divorce he went east and spent a year in the English Department of [[Harvard University]]. There he met Lewis E. Gates, who encouraged his writing. He worked as a news correspondent in [[South Africa]] (1895&ndash;96) for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', and then as editorial assistant for the ''San Francisco Wave'' (1896&ndash;97). He worked for ''[[McClure's|McClure's Magazine]]'' as a war correspondent in [[Cuba]] during the [[Spanish–American War]] in 1898. He joined the New York City publishing firm of [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday & Page]] in 1899.

During his time at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], Norris was a brother in the Fraternity of [[Phi Gamma Delta]]<ref>Wood, William Allen (1902). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433075981849;view=1up;seq=195 "A Golden Bowl Broken,"] ''Phi Gamma Delta Magazine'', Vol. XXV, pp. 157–163.</ref><ref>Chamberlin, William Fosdick. ''The History of Phi Gamma Delta'', The Fraternity, 1926.</ref><ref>Everett, Wallace W. "Frank Norris in his Chapter," ''Phi Gamma Delta Magazine'', Vol. LII, April 1930.</ref> and was an originator of the [[Skull & Keys]] society.<ref>[http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015076307878;view=1up;seq=68 "Frank Norris Honored by Skull & Keys Society of California,"] ''The Phi Gamma Delta'', Vol. 34, No. 6, 1912, p. 606.</ref> Because of his involvement with a prank during the Class Day Exercises in 1893, the annual alumni dinner held by each Phi Gamma Delta chapter still bears his name.<ref>Hathorn, Ralph L. (1915). [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433076000250;view=1up;seq=270 "The Origin of the Pig Dinner,"] ''The Phi Gamma Delta,'' Vol. 38, pp. 424–427.</ref> In 1900 Frank Norris married Jeannette Black. They had a child in 1902.  

[[File:USA-Oakland-Mountain View Cemetery-Grave of Frank Norris-2.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave]]

Norris died in San Francisco on October 25, 1902, of [[peritonitis]] from a ruptured [[Vermiform appendix|appendix]].<ref>"Frank Norris, the novelist, died to-day as the result of an operation for appendicitis performed three days ago". – [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/10/26/118483563.pdf "Death of Frank Norris,"] ''The New York Times'', October 26, 1902.</ref><ref>Cooper, Frederic Taber (1902). "Frank Norris," ''The Bookman'', Vol. 16, pp. 334–335.</ref> This left ''[[The Epic of the Wheat]]'' trilogy unfinished.<ref>"Now it makes no difference when or where or how a writer stumbles upon the idea which is to serve as his central purpose. It may spring from his head at a moment's notice like Athena, full armored – as was the case with the late Frank Norris, who, as has often been told, came one morning to his publisher's office, pale and trembling all over with excitement, and gasping out, almost inarticulately, "I've got a big idea! A great big idea! The biggest idea ever!" It was the outlined scheme for his trilogy of the Epic of the Wheat – the trilogy which began with ''The Octopus'' and ''The Pit'', and which poor Norris did not live to round out with ''The Wolf''." – Cooper, Frederic Taber (1920). [https://archive.org/stream/craftsmanshipofw00cooprich#page/78/mode/2up "The Author's Purpose."] In: ''The Craftsmanship of Writing''. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, pp. 84–85.</ref> He was 32. He is buried in [[Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California)|Mountain View Cemetery]] in [[Oakland, California]].

[[File:Novelist Frank Norris.jpg|thumb|upright|Frank Norris]]
[[Charles Gilman Norris]], the author's younger brother, became a well regarded novelist and editor. C. G. Norris was also the husband of the prolific novelist [[Kathleen Norris]].  The [[Bancroft Library]] of the University of California, Berkeley, houses the archives of all three writers.