Editing Edna Ferber

{{Short description|American novelist and playwright (1885–1968)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Edna Ferber
| image            = Edna-Ferber-1928.jpg
| caption          = Ferber in 1928
| birth_date       = {{birth-date|August 15, 1885}}
| birth_place      = [[Kalamazoo, Michigan]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{death-date and age|April 16, 1968|August 15, 1885}}
| death_place      = New York City, U.S.
| occupation       = [[Novelist]], [[playwright]]
| education        = [[Lawrence University]]
| genre            = Drama, romance
| awards           = [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] (1925)
}}
'''Edna Ferber''' (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning ''[[So Big (novel)|So Big]]'' (1924), ''[[Show Boat (novel)|Show Boat]]'' (1926; made into the celebrated [[Show Boat|1927 musical]]), ''[[Cimarron (novel)|Cimarron]]'' (1930; adapted into the [[Cimarron (1931 film)|1931 film]] which won the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]]), ''Giant'' (1952; made into the [[Giant (1956 film)|1956 film]] of the same name) and ''Ice Palace'' (1958), which also received a [[Ice Palace (film)|film adaptation]] in 1960. She helped adapt her short story "[[Old Man Minick]]", published in 1922, into a play (''[[Minick]]'') and it was thrice adapted to film, in 1925 as the silent film ''[[Welcome Home (1925 film)|Welcome Home]]'', in 1932 as ''[[The Expert (1932 film)|The Expert]]'', and in 1939 as ''[[No Place to Go (1939 film)|No Place to Go]]''.

==Life and career==


===Early years===
Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in [[Kalamazoo, Michigan]], to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]]–born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber, who was of German Jewish descent.  The Ferbers had moved to Kalamazoo from [[Chicago, Illinois]], in order to open a dry goods store, and her older sister Fannie was born there three years earlier.<ref name=ferber-auto>{{cite book |last1=Ferber |first1=Edna |title=A Peculiar Treasure |date=1939 |publisher=Doubleday, Doran and Co. |location=New York |page=18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kinQAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Her+father%2C+Jacob+Charles+Ferber%2C+was+a+Hungarian+Jew%2C+and+her+mother%2C%22&pg=PA191|title=Looking Backward: True Stories from Chicago's Jewish Past|isbn=9780897338271|last1=Roth|first1=Walter|date=August 2005|publisher=Chicago Review Press }}</ref>{{sfn|Gilbert|2000|p=1}}
Ferber's father was not adept at business,{{sfn|Ferber|1939|p=18}} and the family moved often during Ferber's childhood.
From Kalamazoo, they returned  to Chicago for a year, and then
moved to [[Ottumwa, Iowa]], where they resided from 1890 to 1897 (ages 5 to 12 for Ferber). 

In Ottumwa, Ferber and her family faced brutal [[anti-Semitism]], including adult males verbally abusing, mocking and spitting on her on days when she brought lunch to her father, often mocking her in a [[Yiddish]] accent.{{sfn|Ferber|1939|p=41}}<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://www.nndb.com/people/391/000073172/|title=Edna Ferber|website=www.nndb.com|access-date=September 27, 2019}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web |last=Burstein |first=Janet |date=December 31, 1999 |title=Edna Ferber {{!}} Jewish Women's Archive |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ferber-edna |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120193521/https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ferber-edna |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |access-date=February 15, 2019 |website=jwa.org}}</ref> 
According to Ferber, her years in Ottumwa "must be held accountable for anything in me that is hostile toward the world".{{sfn|Ferber|1939|p=31}}
During this time, Ferber's father began to lose his eyesight, necessitating costly and ultimately unsuccessful treatments.{{sfn|Ferber|1939|p=51}} At the age of 12, Ferber and her family moved to [[Appleton, Wisconsin]], where she graduated from high school and later briefly attended [[Lawrence University]].

===Career===
After graduation, Ferber planned to study elocution, with vague thoughts of someday becoming an actress, but her family could not afford to send her to college.  
On the spur of the moment, she took a job as a [[cub reporter]] at the ''[[The Post-Crescent|Appleton Daily Crescent]]'' and subsequently moved to the ''[[Milwaukee Journal]].''{{sfn|Gilbert|2000|p=428}}<ref name=":0" /> In early 1909, Ferber suffered a bout of anemia and returned to Appleton to recuperate.  She never resumed her career as a reporter, although she subsequently covered the [[1920 Republican National Convention]] and [[1920 Democratic National Convention]] for the [[United Press Association]].{{sfn|Gilbert|2000|p=423}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://americanliterature.com/author/edna-ferber|title=Edna Ferber|website=americanliterature.com|access-date=March 9, 2020}}</ref>

While Ferber was recovering, she began writing and selling short stories to various magazines, and in 1911 she published her first novel, ''Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed''.  In 1912, a collection of her short stories was published in a volume titled ''Buttered Side Down''.  In her autobiography, Ferber wrote:{{sfn|Ferber|1939|p=171-172}}
{{blockquote|text=In that day, and for a girl in her early twenties, they were rather hard tough stories... The book got good reviews. I was startled and grimly pleased when some of the reviewers said that obviously these stories had been written by a man who had taken a feminine nom de plume as a hoax.  I have always thought that a writing style should be impossible of sex determination; I don't think the reader should be able to say whether a book has been written by a man or a woman.
}}

In 1925, she won the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for her book ''[[So Big (novel)|So Big]]''. Ferber initially believed her draft of what would become ''So Big'' lacked a plot, glorified failure, and had a subtle theme that could easily be overlooked. When she sent the book to her usual publisher, [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]], she was surprised to learn that he greatly enjoyed the novel. This was reflected by the several hundreds of thousands of copies of the novel sold to the public.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Smyth |first=J. E. |title=Edna Ferber's Hollywood: American fictions of gender, race, and history |date=2010 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=9780292719842 |edition=1st |location=Austin |pages=66; 191–228 |oclc=318870278}}</ref>  Following the award, the novel was made into a [[silent film]] starring [[Colleen Moore]] that [[So Big (1924 film)|same year]]. A remake followed in [[So Big (1932 film)|1932]], starring [[Barbara Stanwyck]] and [[George Brent]], with [[Bette Davis]] in a supporting role. A [[So Big (1953 film)|1953 version]] of ''So Big'' starring [[Jane Wyman]] is the most popular version to modern audiences.<ref name=":2" />

Riding the popularity of ''So Big'', Ferber's next novel, ''[[Show Boat (novel)|Show Boat]]'' in 1926, was just as successful. Shortly after its release, composer [[Jerome Kern]] proposed turning it into a [[Show Boat|musical]]. Ferber was shocked, thinking it would be transformed into a typical light entertainment of the 1920s. It was not until Kern explained that he and [[Oscar Hammerstein II]] wanted to create a different type of [[Musical theater|musical]] that Ferber granted him the rights and it premiered on [[Broadway theater|Broadway]] in 1927, and it has been [[Revival (theatre)|revived]] eight times.

Her 1952 novel ''Giant'' became the basis of the [[Giant (1956 film)|1956 movie]], starring [[Elizabeth Taylor]], [[James Dean]] and [[Rock Hudson]].<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Edna Feber Plaque.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque located in Manhattan, at 65th Street & Central Park West, in the building in which Edna Ferber lived for six years]]

Ferber was reportedly the first author to assign film rights to her books on short-term contracts so that the rights needed to be renegotiated regularly.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[Minneapolis Tribune]]|page=1D|last=Maltin|first=Leonard|author-link=Leonard Maltin|date=June 23, 1974|title=Lost, strayed or ? – where are those classic films of today?}}</ref>

=== Death ===
Ferber died at her home in New York City, of [[stomach cancer]],<ref>{{cite book|author=R. Baird Shuman|title=Great American Writers: Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YBIvc_e_YwwC&pg=PA503|year=2002|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7240-7|page=503}}</ref> at the age of 82. She left her estate to her sister and nieces.<ref name="brody">{{cite book |last1=Brody |first1=Seymour |title=Jewish Heroes & Heroines of America: 150 True Stories of American Jewish Heroism |date=1996 |publisher=Lifetime Books Inc. |location=Hollywood, FL |isbn=0-8119-0823-2 |pages=109–110|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/edna-ferber|access-date=October 15, 2022}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Ferber never married, had no children, and is not known to have engaged in a romance or sexual relationship.{{efn|There have been undocumented rumors that Ferber was a lesbian.
Professor John Unsworth makes an unsupported claim in John Sutherland (2007) ''Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction'' Oxford University Press: 53. Haggerty and Zimmerman imply she was gay because of her visits to [[Provincetown]] in the early 20th century (Haggerty and Zimmerman (2000), ''Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia'', Taylor and Francis, p. 610).
Porter (Porter, Darwin (2004) ''Katherine the Great'', Blood Moon Productions, Ltd, p. 204) comments in passing that Ferber was a lesbian, but offers no support. Burrough (Burrough, Brian (2010) ''The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes'', Penguin) also remarks in passing that Ferber was gay, citing the biography written by Julie Goldsmith Gilbert (Ferber's great niece, see bibliography).  Gilbert, however, makes no mention of lesbian relationships.}}
In her early novel ''Dawn O'Hara'', the title character's aunt remarks, "Being an old maid was a great deal like death by drowning – a really delightful sensation when you ceased struggling." Ferber did take a maternal interest in the career of her niece [[Janet Fox]], an actress who performed in the original Broadway casts of Ferber's plays ''[[Dinner at Eight (play)|Dinner at Eight]]'' (1932) and ''[[Stage Door (play)|Stage Door]]'' (1936).

Ferber was known for being outspoken and having a quick wit. On one occasion, she led other Jewish guests in leaving a house party after learning the host was antisemitic.<ref name="brody" /> Once, after [[Noël Coward]] joked about how her suit made her resemble a man, she replied, "So does yours."<ref name=":1" />

=== Importance of Jewish identity ===
Starting in 1922, Ferber began to visit Europe once or twice annually for thirteen or fourteen years.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal|last1=Shapiro|first1=Ann R.|date=2002|title=Edna Ferber, Jewish American Feminist|journal=Shofar|volume=20|issue=2|pages=52–60|doi=10.1353/sho.2001.0159|s2cid=143198251}}</ref> During this time and unlike most Americans, she became troubled by the rise of the [[Nazi Party]] and its spreading of the [[antisemitic]] prejudice she had faced in her childhood. She commented on this saying, "It was a fearful thing to see a continent – a civilization – crumbling before one's eyes. It was a rapid and seemingly inevitable process to which no one paid any particular attention."{{sfn|Ferber|1939|p=267}} Her fears greatly influenced her work, which often featured themes of racial and cultural discrimination. Her 1938 autobiography, ''[[A Peculiar Treasure]]'', originally included a spiteful dedication to [[Adolf Hitler]] which stated: <blockquote>To Adolf Hitler, who has made me a better Jew and a more understanding human being, as he has of millions of other Jews, this book is dedicated in loathing and contempt.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>While this was changed by the time of the book's publication, it still alluded to the Nazi threat.<ref name=":3" /> She frequently mentions Jewish success in her book, alluding to and wanting to show not just that Jewish success, but Jews being able to use that and prevail.<ref name=":3" />

=== Algonquin Round Table ===
Ferber was a member of the [[Algonquin Round Table]], a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the [[Algonquin Hotel]] in New York. Ferber and another member of the Round Table, [[Alexander Woollcott]], were long-time enemies, their antipathy lasting until Woollcott's death in 1943, although [[Howard Teichmann]] states in his biography of Woollcott that their feud was due to a misunderstanding. According to Teichmann, Ferber once described Woollcott as "a New Jersey [[Nero]] who has mistaken his [[pinafore]] for a [[toga]]".

Ferber collaborated with Round Table member [[George S. Kaufman]] on several plays presented on Broadway: ''Minick'' (1924), ''[[The Royal Family (play)|The Royal Family]]'' (1927), ''[[Dinner at Eight (play)|Dinner At Eight]]'' (1932), ''[[The Land Is Bright]]'' (1941), ''[[Stage Door (play)|Stage Door]]'' (1936), and ''Bravo!'' (1948).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bard.org/study-guides/about-the-playwright-the-royal-family|title=About the Playwright: The Royal Family – The Kaufman-Ferber Partnership|work=Utah Shakespeare Festival|publisher=The Professional Theater at Southern Utah University|access-date=February 8, 2017}}</ref>

===Political views===
In a poll carried out by the ''[[Saturday Review of Literature]]'', asking American writers which presidential candidate they supported in the [[1940 United States presidential election|1940 election]], Ferber endorsed [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]].<ref>''"Among those who have stated they will vote for President Roosevelt are Edna Ferber..."'' "Editorial: Presidential Poll", ''Saturday Review of Literature''. November 2, 1940 (p.8).</ref>

== Characteristics of works ==
Ferber's novels generally featured strong female [[protagonist]]s, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination, ethnic or otherwise.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Halley |first=Catherine |date=2023-01-18 |title=Edna Ferber Revisited |url=https://daily.jstor.org/edna-ferber-revisited/ |access-date=2023-01-20 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}}</ref>

Ferber's works often concerned small subsets of American culture, and sometimes took place in exotic locations she had visited but was not intimately familiar with, such as [[Texas]] or [[Alaska]]. She thus helped to highlight the diversity of American culture to those who did not have the opportunity to experience it. Some novels are set in places she had not visited.<ref>"Ferber, Edna (1887–1968)." ''Modern American Literature'', 5th ed., vol. 1, St. James Press, 1999, pp. 354–356. ''Gale eBooks''. {{subscription required|via=}} Accessed 20 Jan. 2023.</ref>

==Legacy==

*Ferber was portrayed by the actress [[Lili Taylor]] in the film ''[[Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle]]'' (1994).<ref>{{cite web|title=Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110588/|website=Imdb.com|date=November 23, 1994|access-date=September 27, 2015}}</ref>
*In 2008, [[The Library of America]] selected Ferber's article "Miss Ferber Views 'Vultures' at Trial" for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime.
*On July 29, 2002, in her hometown of [[Appleton, Wisconsin]], the U.S. Postal Service issued an 83¢ [[Distinguished Americans series]] postage stamp honoring her. Artist Mark Summers, well known for his [[scratchboard]] technique, created this portrait for the stamp referencing a black-and-white photograph of Ferber taken in 1927.<ref>{{cite web | author=The Postal Store | title=Distinguished Americans Series: Edna Ferber | url=http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=11834&productId=13908&langId=-1 | publisher=United States Postal Service | year=2008 | access-date=August 9, 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080507150638/http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=11834&productId=13908&langId=-1 |archive-date = May 7, 2008}}</ref>
*A fictionalized version of Edna Ferber appears briefly as a character in [[Philipp Meyer]]'s novel ''The Son'' (2013).
*Another fictionalized Edna Ferber, with herself as the protagonist, appears in a series of mystery novels by Ed Ifkovic, published by [[Poisoned Pen Press]], including ''Downtown Strut: An Edna Ferber Mystery'', written in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.poisonedpenpress.com/downtown-strut/ |title=Downtown Strut: An Edna Ferber Mystery #4 – Discover Mystery Books with Poisoned Pen Press |access-date=June 28, 2016 |archive-date=July 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714101131/http://www.poisonedpenpress.com/downtown-strut/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*In 2013, Ferber was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/edna-ferber |title=Edna Ferber |date=2013 |website=Chicago Literary Hall of Fame |language=en |access-date=October 8, 2017}}</ref>
*In her hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, the Edna Ferber Elementary School was named after her.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ferber.aasd.k12.wi.us/home|title=Home|website=ferber.aasd.k12.wi.us}}</ref> Construction of the school was initially voted down in a 1971 referendum.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ferber School Issue Raised Again|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3845711/ferber_elementary_school_appleton_wi/|newspaper=The Post-Crescent|date=October 2, 1973|page=9|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date =December 18, 2015 }} {{Open access}}</ref>

==List of works==
{{Incomplete list|date=January 2018}}Ferber wrote thirteen novels, two autobiographies, numerous short stories, and nine plays, many which were written in collaborations with other playwrights.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/edna-ferber|title=Edna Ferber {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com|access-date=March 10, 2020}}</ref>

===Novels===
* ''Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed'' (1911)
* ''Fanny Herself'' (1917)
* ''The Girls'' (1921)
*
* ''[[So Big (novel)|So Big]]'' (1924) (won [[Pulitzer Prize]])
* ''[[Show Boat (novel)|Show Boat]]'' (1926, [[Grosset & Dunlap]])
* ''[[Cimarron (novel)|Cimarron]]'' (1930)
* ''[[American Beauty (Edna Ferber novel)|American Beauty]]'' (1931)
* ''[[Come and Get It (novel)|Come and Get It]]'' (1935)
* ''[[Saratoga Trunk (novel)|Saratoga Trunk]]'' (1941)
* ''Great Son'' (1945)
* ''Giant'' (1952)
* ''Ice Palace'' (1958)

===Novellas and short story collections===
* ''Buttered Side Down'' (1912)
* ''Roast Beef, Medium'' (1913) Emma McChesney stories
* ''[[Personality Plus]]'' (1914) Emma McChesney stories
* ''Emma Mc Chesney and Co.'' (1915) Emma McChesney stories
* ''Cheerful – By Request'' (1918)
* ''Half Portions'' (1919)
* Gigolo (1922)
* ''Mother Knows Best'' (1927)
* ''They Brought Their Women'' (1933)
* ''Nobody's in Town: Two Short Novels'' (1938) Contains ''Nobody's in Town'' and ''Trees Die at the Top''
* ''One Basket: Thirty-One Short Stories'' (1947) Includes "No Room at the Inn: A Story of Christmas in the World Today"

===Autobiographies===
* ''[[A Peculiar Treasure]]'' (1939)
* ''A Kind of Magic'' (1963)

===Plays===
* ''[[Our Mrs. McChesney]]'' (1915) (play, with [[George V. Hobart]])
* ''$1200 a Year:  A Comedy in Three Acts'' (1920) (play, with Newman Levy)
* ''[[Old Man Minick|Minick]]: A Play'' (1924) (play, with G. S. Kaufman), adapted from her short story "[[Old Man Minick]]"
* ''[[The Royal Family (play)|The Royal Family]]'' (1927) (play, with G. S. Kaufman)
* ''[[Dinner at Eight (play)|Dinner at Eight]]'' (1932) (play, with G. S. Kaufman)
* ''[[Stage Door (play)|Stage Door]]'' (1936) (play, with G.S. Kaufman)
* ''[[The Land Is Bright]]'' (1941) (play, with G. S. Kaufman)
* ''Bravo!'' (1949) (play, with G. S. Kaufman)

===Screenplays===
* ''[[Saratoga Trunk]]'' (1945) (film, with Casey Robinson)

===[[Musical theater|Musical adaptations]]===

* ''[[Show Boat]]'' (1927) – music by [[Jerome Kern]], lyrics and book by [[Oscar Hammerstein II]], produced by [[Florenz Ziegfeld]]
* ''[[Saratoga (musical)|Saratoga]]'' (1959) – music by [[Harold Arlen]], lyrics by [[Johnny Mercer]], dramatized by [[Morton DaCosta]]
* ''[[Giant (musical)|Giant]]'' (2009) – music and lyrics by [[Michael John LaChiusa]], book by [[Sybille Pearson]]

==References==

===Endnotes===
{{notelist}}

===Footnotes===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book
| publisher = Doubleday
| last = Ferber
| first = Edna
| title = A Peculiar Treasure
| location = New York
| year = 1960
}}
* {{Cite book
| publisher = Applause
| last = Gilbert
| first = Julie Goldsmith
| title = Edna Ferber and Her Circle, A Biography
| location = New York
| year = 2000
| isbn=1-55783-332-X
}}
{{refend}}

;Archives
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite archive
| collection = Doubleday correspondence with Edna Ferber, 1932-1954
| collection-url = http://librarysearch.williams.edu/01WIL:everything_scope:01WIL_ALMA21150034930002786
| repository = Chapin Library
| institution = Williams College
}}
*{{Cite archive
| collection = Edna Ferber Collection, 1921–2002
| collection-url = http://archives.lawrence.edu/?p=collections/findingaid&id=1&rootcontentid=3901
| repository = Lawrence University Archives
| institution = Lawrence University
}}
*{{cite archive
| collection = Edna Ferber Papers
| collection-url = http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=wiarchives;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=uw-whs-us0098an
| institution = Wisconsin Historical Society
}}
*{{cite archive
| collection = Edna Ferber Collection
| collection-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130728024657/http://apl.org/community/hist/ferber
| institution = Appleton Public Library
}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
{{commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name|0272209}}
* {{IBDB name}}
* [https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ferber-edna Jeiwsh Women's Archive page]

===Online editions===
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edna-ferber}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=193 | name=Edna Ferber}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Ferber, Edna|name=Edna Ferber|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edna Ferber}}
* {{Librivox author |id=708}}

{{Edna Ferber|state=expanded}}
{{PulitzerPrize Fiction 1918–1925}}
{{Michigan Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Show Boat}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferber, Edna}}
[[Category:1885 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American biographers]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women writers]]
<!--[[Category:20th-century people from Iowa]] – 
Category not yet created at February 2025-->
<!--[[Category:20th-century people from Michigan]] – Category not yet created at February 2025-->
[[Category:20th-century people from New York (state)]]
[[Category:20th-century people from Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Algonquin Round Table]]
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American women autobiographers]]
[[Category:American women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American women novelists]]
[[Category:American women short story writers]]
[[Category:Broadway theatre people]]
[[Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Jewish American novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish American short story writers]]
[[Category:Jewish women writers]]
[[Category:Lawrence University alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Novelists from Iowa]]
[[Category:Novelists from Michigan]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York City]]
[[Category:Novelists from Wisconsin]]
[[Category:People from Ottumwa, Iowa]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for the Novel winners]]
[[Category:The New Yorker people]]
[[Category:Writers from Appleton, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Writers from Kalamazoo, Michigan]]
[[Category:Writers from Manhattan]]