Anne W. Armstrong
Encyclopedia
Anne Wetzell Armstrong was an American novelist and businesswoman, active primarily in the first half of the 20th century. She is best known for her novel, This Day and Time, an account of life in a rural Appalachia
n community. She was also a pioneering woman in business management, and was the first woman to lecture before the Harvard School of Business and Dartmouth
's Tuck School of Business
in the early 1920s.
, in 1872. In the 1880s, her family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee
, where her father operated a lumber company. She attended Mount Holyoke College
, where she wrote for the school's newspaper, and later attended the University of Chicago
. She had returned to Knoxville by 1892, when she married Leonard T. Waldron. They had one son before divorcing in 1894. In 1905, she married Robert F. Armstrong.
Armstrong published her first novel, The Seas of God, in 1915. In 1918, she was hired as a personnel director for the National City Company of New York. She later gave an account of her early days with this company in her article, "A Woman in Wall Street by One," which was published in Atlantic Monthly in 1925. In 1919, Armstrong was hired as the Assistant Manager for Industrial Relations for Eastman Kodak
, and continued in this position until 1923. During the latter half of the decade, she published several articles in Harper's Monthly and Atlantic Monthly that focused on the emerging role of women in business.
In the late 1920s, Armstrong retired and moved to the Big Creek community in rural Sullivan County, Tennessee, which would provide the inspiration for her 1930 novel, This Day and Time. During this same period, she began a correspondence with author Thomas Wolfe
, and began writing her autobiography, Of Time and Knoxville, a portion of which was published as "The Branner House" in The Yale Review
in 1938. Three of Wolfe's letters to Armstrong were published in the 1956 collection, The Letters of Thomas Wolfe.
In the 1940s, the Tennessee Valley Authority
completed South Holston Dam
, effectively inundating the Big Creek community, which straddled the South Fork Holston just upstream from the dam. Armstrong moved to various places around the Southeast
before settling in Abingdon, Virginia
. She lived in the Barter Inn in Abingdon until her death in 1958.
Armstrong's second novel, This Day and Time, takes place in an early 20th century rural Appalachian community based primarily on the Big Creek area of Sullivan County, Tennessee. The story focuses on Ivy, a mountain woman who returns to a life of subsistence farming after spending several distasteful years as a wage-earner in a nearby city. Armstrong's characters speak in a local Appalachian dialect
, and the book discusses many aspects of life in early-20th century rural Appalachia, including funerary and agricultural customs, and life in a logging town.
Armstrong's business writings typically focused on the status of women in the business world. Her 1927 article, "Are Business Women Getting a Square Deal," traces the gradual acceptance of women in the workplace, from the 1880s through the post-World War period. In the 1928 article, "Have Women Changed Business," Armstrong complains that businesswomen have failed to make business more ethical, falling short of goals set forth by women's movement leaders such as Nellie Ross. In "Seven Deadly Sins of Women in Business," she advises women not to try and imitate men in dress and manners, but instead focus on what their feminine nature can bring to the workplace.
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
n community. She was also a pioneering woman in business management, and was the first woman to lecture before the Harvard School of Business and Dartmouth
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
's Tuck School of Business
Tuck School of Business
The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States...
in the early 1920s.
Biography
Armstrong was born Anne Audubon Wetzell in Grand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, in 1872. In the 1880s, her family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, where her father operated a lumber company. She attended Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others...
, where she wrote for the school's newspaper, and later attended the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. She had returned to Knoxville by 1892, when she married Leonard T. Waldron. They had one son before divorcing in 1894. In 1905, she married Robert F. Armstrong.
Armstrong published her first novel, The Seas of God, in 1915. In 1918, she was hired as a personnel director for the National City Company of New York. She later gave an account of her early days with this company in her article, "A Woman in Wall Street by One," which was published in Atlantic Monthly in 1925. In 1919, Armstrong was hired as the Assistant Manager for Industrial Relations for Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
, and continued in this position until 1923. During the latter half of the decade, she published several articles in Harper's Monthly and Atlantic Monthly that focused on the emerging role of women in business.
In the late 1920s, Armstrong retired and moved to the Big Creek community in rural Sullivan County, Tennessee, which would provide the inspiration for her 1930 novel, This Day and Time. During this same period, she began a correspondence with author Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe was a major American novelist of the early 20th century.Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing...
, and began writing her autobiography, Of Time and Knoxville, a portion of which was published as "The Branner House" in The Yale Review
The Yale Review
The Yale Review is the self-proclaimed oldest literary quarterly in the United States. It is published by Yale University.It was founded originally in 1819 as The Christian Spectator. At its origin it was published to support Evangelicalism, but over time began to publish more on history and...
in 1938. Three of Wolfe's letters to Armstrong were published in the 1956 collection, The Letters of Thomas Wolfe.
In the 1940s, the Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
completed South Holston Dam
South Holston Dam
South Holston Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control dam on the South Fork Holston River in Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the uppermost of three dams on the South Fork Holston owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1940s as part...
, effectively inundating the Big Creek community, which straddled the South Fork Holston just upstream from the dam. Armstrong moved to various places around the Southeast
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
before settling in Abingdon, Virginia
Abingdon, Virginia
Abingdon is a town in Washington County, Virginia, USA, 133 miles southwest of Roanoke. The population was 8,191 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Washington County and is a designated Virginia Historic Landmark...
. She lived in the Barter Inn in Abingdon until her death in 1958.
Writing
Armstrong's first novel, The Seas of God, tells the story of a young woman, Lydia Lambright, and her struggles to survive as an unwed mother amidst the moral constraints of Victorian society. The story opens in Kingsville, a fictional Southern town (based on Knoxville) where Lydia's dying father, a professor, has been ostracized for teaching the Theory of Evolution. Bitter over her father's treatment, she leaves Kingsville, and eventually winds up in New York. An illicit affair with a married man leaves her pregnant, and she gradually sinks into poverty. Unable to find gainful employment, she becomes a prostitute, and while her financial situation drastically improves, she struggles with what she deems a pointless existence.Armstrong's second novel, This Day and Time, takes place in an early 20th century rural Appalachian community based primarily on the Big Creek area of Sullivan County, Tennessee. The story focuses on Ivy, a mountain woman who returns to a life of subsistence farming after spending several distasteful years as a wage-earner in a nearby city. Armstrong's characters speak in a local Appalachian dialect
Appalachian English
Appalachian English is a common name for the Southern Midland dialect of American English. This dialect is spoken primarily in the Central and Southern Appalachian Mountain region of the Eastern United States, namely in North Georgia, Northwestern South Carolina, Southern West Virginia,...
, and the book discusses many aspects of life in early-20th century rural Appalachia, including funerary and agricultural customs, and life in a logging town.
Armstrong's business writings typically focused on the status of women in the business world. Her 1927 article, "Are Business Women Getting a Square Deal," traces the gradual acceptance of women in the workplace, from the 1880s through the post-World War period. In the 1928 article, "Have Women Changed Business," Armstrong complains that businesswomen have failed to make business more ethical, falling short of goals set forth by women's movement leaders such as Nellie Ross. In "Seven Deadly Sins of Women in Business," she advises women not to try and imitate men in dress and manners, but instead focus on what their feminine nature can bring to the workplace.
Books
- The Seas of God (1915)
- This Day and Time (1930)
- Of Time and Knoxville: Fragment of an Autobiography (Unpublished; typescript on file at East Tennessee State UniversityEast Tennessee State UniversityEast Tennessee State University is an accredited American university located in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents system of colleges and universities, the nation's sixth largest system of public education, and is the fourth largest university in the state...
)
Articles
- "A Woman in Wall Street by One" (Atlantic Monthly, August 1925)
- "Seven Deadly Sins of Women in Business" (Harper's Monthly, August 1926)
- "Uneasy Business" (Atlantic Monthly, January 1927)
- "Fear in Business Life" (Harper's Monthly, April 1927)
- "Are Business Women Getting a Square Deal?" (Atlantic Monthly, July 1927)
- "Business Bourbons" (Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1928)
- "Have Women Changed Business?" (Harper's Monthly, December 1928)
- "The Southern Mountaineers" (Yale Review, March 1935)
- "A Writer's Friends" (Atlantic Monthly, June 1935)
- "The Branner House" (Yale Review, March 1938)
- "Romantic Cook-Book" (Yale Review, December 1939)
- "As I Saw Thomas Wolfe" (Arizona Quarterly, Spring 1946)
- "Fashions in Grandmothers" (Saturday Review of Literature, 21 December 1946)
External links
- The Seas of God — Google Books
- Vacations — transcript of a 1920 meeting chaired by Armstrong