Alice Hegan Rice, also known as Alice Caldwell Hegan, (January 11, 1870 – February 10, 1942) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 novelist.

Born in Shelbyville, Kentucky

Shelbyville, Kentucky

As of the census of 2000, there were 10,085 people, 3,822 households, and 2,549 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,333.5 people per square mile . There were 4,117 housing units at an average density of 544.4 per square mile...

, she wrote over two dozen books, the most famous of which is Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a 1934 comedy-genre film, directed by Norman Taurog, and based on the 1901 novel by Alice Hegan Rice. It also appeared as a radio series between 1936 and 1938. It is one of two movies that feature a rare film performance by famed Broadway stage actress Pauline...

. The book was a best seller in 1902 and is set in Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 where she then lived. It was made into a successful play in 1903, and there were three Hollywood movie versions of it. The best known is the 1934 film that starred Pauline Lord

Pauline Lord

Pauline Lord was an American stage and film actress-Biography:She was born in Hanford, California to Edward Lord and Sara Foster...

 and W. C. Fields

W. C. Fields

William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...

.

Hegan was married to poet and dramatist Cale Young Rice

Cale Young Rice

Cale Young Rice was an American poet and dramatist.He was born in Dixon, Kentucky to Laban Marchbanks Rice, a Confederate veteran and tobacco merchant, and his wife Martha Lacy. He was a younger brother of Laban Lacy Rice, a noted educator. Cale Rice grew up in Evansville, Indiana and Louisville,...

. The house they lived in at 1444 St. James Court is still standing. She was a niece of author Frances Little

Frances Little

Frances Little was the pseudonym of American author Fannie Caldwell. Caldwell and her husband, businessman J.D. Macaulay, made their home on Fourth Street in Louisville, Kentucky. Her debut book The Lady of the Decoration was published in New York City in 1906 and would be her most successful work...

 (pseud.).

Several of Alice Rice's earlier works were translated into German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Danish

Danish language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

, and Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

, and three (Mrs. Wiggs, Mr. Opp, and the Romance of Billy-Goat Hill) were dramatized. Both before and after she became a novelist she was favorably known also for short stories contributed to the magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

s.

Her other titles were:

• Lovey Mary (1903)
• Sandy (1905)
• Captain June (1907)
• Mr. Opp (1909)
• A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill (1912)
• The Honorable Percival (1914)
• Calvary Alley (1917)
• Miss Mink’s Soldier and Other Stories (1918)
• Turn About Tales (with Cale Young Rice) (1920)
• Quin (1921)
• Winners and Losers (with Cale Young Rice) (1925)
• The Buffer (1929)
• Mr. Pete & Co. (1933)
• The Lark Legacy (1935)
• Passionate Follies (1936)
• My Pillow Book (1937)
• Our Ernie (1939)
• The Inky Way (1940)
• Happiness Road (1942) (posthumous)

She died at her home in Louisville in 1942.

External links

• Alice Hegan Rice
• Alice Hegan Rice in "Old Louisville in Literature - Brief biographical information