Ellen Glasgow
Encyclopedia
Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 - November 21, 1945) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary south.
, the young Glasgow developed in a different way from that traditional to women of her class. Due to poor health, she was educated at home in Richmond. She read deeply in philosophy, social and political theory, and European and British literature. She spent her summers at her family's Bumpass, Virginia
estate, the historic Jerdone Castle
plantation
, a setting that she used in her writings. Her father, Francis Thomas Glasgow, was the son of Arthur Glasgow and Catherine Anderson. He was raised in Rockbridge County, Virginia
and graduated from Washington and Lee College in 1847.
Glasgow's maternal uncle Joseph Reid Anderson
, graduated fourth in his class of 49 from West Point in 1836. On April 4, 1848, he purchased the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond. When news of the secession
reached Richmond, Anderson promptly joined the army of Northern Virginia, achieving general's rank. General Robert E. Lee
asked him to return to Tredegar Ironworks to manage the manufacturing on which Lee's victory would depend.
Francis Glasgow later managed the Tredegar Iron Works
. Glasgow thought her father self-righteous and unfeeling. But, some of her more admirable characters reflect a Scots
-Calvinist background like his and a similar "iron vein of Presbyterianism."
Her mother was Anne Jane Gholson, born on December 9, 1831 at Needham, Virginia and died on October 27, 1893. She was the daughter of William Yates Gholson and Martha Anne Jane Taylor. She was the granddaughter of Congressman Thomas Gholson, Jr.
and Anne Yates, and a descendant of Rev. William Yates
, the College of William & Mary's fifth president (1761–1764). Gholson was also a descendant of William Randolph
, a prominent colonist and land owner in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He and his wife, Mary Isham, were referred to as the "Adam and Eve" of Virginia.
Anne Gholson married Francis T. Glasgow on July 14, 1853, and they had ten children together. Anne Gholson was inclined to what was then called "nervous invalidism"; some attributed this to her having borne and cared for ten children. Glasgow also dealt with "nervous invalidism" throughout her life.
As the United States women's suffrage
movement was developing in the early 1900s, Glasgow marched in the English suffrage parades in the spring 1909. Later she spoke at the first suffrage meeting in Virginia. Glasgow felt that the movement came "at the wrong moment" for her, and her participation and interest waned. Glasgow did not at first make women’s roles her major theme, and she was slow to place heroines rather than heroes at the centers of her stories. Her later works, however, have heroines who display many of the attributes of women involved in the political movement.
Glasgow died on November 21, 1945 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia
.
, whom she called "Gerald B." Ellen also maintained a close lifelong friendship with James Branch Cabell
, another notable Richmond writer. She was engaged twice, and collaborated on novels with one fiancé, but did not marry. She felt her best work was done when love was over.
By the time The Descendant was in print, Glasgow had finished Phases of an Inferior Planet. The novel portrays the demise of a marriage and focuses on "the spirituality of female friendship." Critics found the story to be "sodden with hopelessness all the way though," but "excellently told." Glasgow stated that her third novel, The Voice of People (1900) was an objective view of the poor-white farmer in politics. The hero is a young Southerner who, having a genius for politics, rises above the masses and falls in love with a higher class girl. Her next novel, The Battle-Ground (1902), sold over 21,000 copies in the first two weeks after publication. It depicts the South before and during the Civil War and was hailed as "the first and best realistic treatment of the war from the southern point of view."
The Deliverance (1904) and her previous novel, The Battle-Ground, were written during her affair with Gerald B. They "are the only early books in which Glasgow's heroine and hero are united" by the novels' ends.
Glasgow's next four novels were written in what she considered her "earlier manner" and were received with mixed reviews. The Wheel of Life (1906) sold moderately well based on the success of The Descendant. Despite its commercial success, however, reviewers found the book disappointing. Set in New York, the story tells of domestic unhappiness and tangled love affairs. It was unfavorably compared to Edith Wharton
's House of Mirth, which was published that same year. Most critics recommended that Glasgow “stick to the South.” Glasgow regarded the novel a failure.
The Ancient Law (1908) portrayed white factory workers in the Virginia textile industry, and analyzes the rise of industrial capitalism and its corresponding social ills. Critics found the book to be overly melodramatic. With The Romance of a Plain Man (1909) and The Miller of Old Church (1911) Glasgow began concentrating on gender traditions; she contrasted the conventions of the Southern woman with the feminist viewpoint, a direction which she continued in Virginia (1913).
In Virginia (1913) the title protagonist is a southern lady whose husband abandons her when he achieves success. The protagonist in Life and Gabriella is also abandoned by a weak-willed husband, but Gabriella becomes a self-sufficient, single mother who remarries well by the end of the novel. Glasgow published two more novels, The Builders (1919) and One Man in His Time (1922), as well as a set of short stories (The Shadowy Third and Other Stories (1923), before producing the novel of greatest personal importance, Barren Ground (1925).
In this novel, Glasgow felt she had successfully reversed the traditional seduction plot by producing a heroine completely freed from the southern patriarchal influence. She believed that writing Barren Ground, a “tragedy,” also freed her for her comedies of manners The Romantic Comedians (1926), They Stooped to Folly (1929), and The Sheltered Life (1932). These late works are considered the most artful criticism of romantic illusion in her career.
Glasgow produced two more "novels of character", The Sheltered Life (1932) and Vein of Iron (1935), in which she continued to explore female independence.
In 1941 she published In This Our Life, which won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942. In addition, it was quickly bought by Warner Brothers and adapted as a movie
by the same name, released in 1942.
Her autobiography, The Woman Within, published after her death, details her progression as an author and the influences essential for her becoming an acclaimed Southern woman writer.
Biography
Born into an elite Virginia family in Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, the young Glasgow developed in a different way from that traditional to women of her class. Due to poor health, she was educated at home in Richmond. She read deeply in philosophy, social and political theory, and European and British literature. She spent her summers at her family's Bumpass, Virginia
Bumpass, Virginia
Bumpass is an unincorporated community located primarily in Louisa County, Virginia, United States, but covering a small portion of both Spotsylvania and Hanover Counties as well. It has received moderate fame for its unusual name. Named for the Bumpass family who lived in the area when it was...
estate, the historic Jerdone Castle
Jerdone Castle
Jerdone Castle is a plantation located in Bumpass, Virginia, dating from 1742. Jerdone Castle is a Virginia Historic Landmark and registered on the U.S. National Register of Historical Places. Originally , much of the plantation's original land is submerged under Lake Anna. The estate currently...
plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
, a setting that she used in her writings. Her father, Francis Thomas Glasgow, was the son of Arthur Glasgow and Catherine Anderson. He was raised in Rockbridge County, Virginia
Rockbridge County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 20,808 people, 8,486 households, and 6,075 families residing in the county. The population density was 35 people per square mile . There were 9,550 housing units at an average density of 16 per square mile...
and graduated from Washington and Lee College in 1847.
Glasgow's maternal uncle Joseph Reid Anderson
Joseph R. Anderson
Joseph Reid Anderson was an American civil engineer, industrialist, and soldier. During the American Civil War he served as a Confederate general, and his Tredegar Iron Company was a major source of munitions and ordnance for the Confederate States Army.-Early life and career:Joseph Reid Anderson...
, graduated fourth in his class of 49 from West Point in 1836. On April 4, 1848, he purchased the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond. When news of the secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
reached Richmond, Anderson promptly joined the army of Northern Virginia, achieving general's rank. General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
asked him to return to Tredegar Ironworks to manage the manufacturing on which Lee's victory would depend.
Francis Glasgow later managed the Tredegar Iron Works
Tredegar Iron Works
The Tredegar Iron Works was a historic iron foundry in Richmond, Virginia, United States of America, opened in 1837. During the American Civil War, the works served as the primary iron and artillery production facility of the Confederate States of America...
. Glasgow thought her father self-righteous and unfeeling. But, some of her more admirable characters reflect a Scots
Scots
Scots may refer to:*The Scottish people, the inhabitants of Scotland*Scots language *Scotch-Irish*Scottish English*Scots pine, a Scottish tree*Short for Pound Scots...
-Calvinist background like his and a similar "iron vein of Presbyterianism."
Her mother was Anne Jane Gholson, born on December 9, 1831 at Needham, Virginia and died on October 27, 1893. She was the daughter of William Yates Gholson and Martha Anne Jane Taylor. She was the granddaughter of Congressman Thomas Gholson, Jr.
Thomas Gholson, Jr.
Thomas Gholson, Jr. was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Virginia from 1808 to 1816 in the United States House of Representatives from both Virginia's 18th congressional district and Virginia's 17th congressional district both now obsolete congressional districts...
and Anne Yates, and a descendant of Rev. William Yates
William Yates (college president)
William Yates, was a clergyman in the Church of England, educator, fifth president of William and Mary College and is the namesake for Yates Hall on the College's campus-Biography:...
, the College of William & Mary's fifth president (1761–1764). Gholson was also a descendant of William Randolph
William Randolph
William Randolph was a colonist and land owner who played an important role in the history and government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He moved to Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673, and married Mary Isham a few years later...
, a prominent colonist and land owner in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He and his wife, Mary Isham, were referred to as the "Adam and Eve" of Virginia.
Anne Gholson married Francis T. Glasgow on July 14, 1853, and they had ten children together. Anne Gholson was inclined to what was then called "nervous invalidism"; some attributed this to her having borne and cared for ten children. Glasgow also dealt with "nervous invalidism" throughout her life.
As the United States women's suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
movement was developing in the early 1900s, Glasgow marched in the English suffrage parades in the spring 1909. Later she spoke at the first suffrage meeting in Virginia. Glasgow felt that the movement came "at the wrong moment" for her, and her participation and interest waned. Glasgow did not at first make women’s roles her major theme, and she was slow to place heroines rather than heroes at the centers of her stories. Her later works, however, have heroines who display many of the attributes of women involved in the political movement.
Glasgow died on November 21, 1945 and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
.
Relationships
Glasgow had several love interests during her life. In The Woman Within (1954), an autobiography written for posthumous publication, Glasgow tells of a long, secret affair with a married man she had met in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, whom she called "Gerald B." Ellen also maintained a close lifelong friendship with James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell, ; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and belles lettres. Cabell was well regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis. His works were considered escapist and fit well in the culture of the 1920s, when his...
, another notable Richmond writer. She was engaged twice, and collaborated on novels with one fiancé, but did not marry. She felt her best work was done when love was over.
Reception and honors
In 1923 a reviewer in Time characterized Glasgow:"She is of the South; but she is not by any manner of means provincial. She was educated, being a delicate child, at home and at private schools. Yet she is by no means a woman secluded from life. She has wide contacts and interests. . . . Here is a really important figure in the history of American letters; for she has preserved for us the quality and the beauty of her real South."
Works
Glasgow's first novel, The Descendant (1897) was written in secret and published anonymously. She destroyed part of the manuscript after her mother died in 1893. The work was delayed after her brother-in-law and intellectual mentor, George McCormack, died the following year. It was not until absorbing the losses of these two deaths that she returned to her novel, completing it in 1895. The novel features an emancipated heroine who seeks passion rather than marriage. Although it was published anonymously, the novel's authorship became well known the following year, when her second novel, Phases of an Inferior Planet (1898), announced on its title page, “by Ellen Glasgow, author of The Descendant.”By the time The Descendant was in print, Glasgow had finished Phases of an Inferior Planet. The novel portrays the demise of a marriage and focuses on "the spirituality of female friendship." Critics found the story to be "sodden with hopelessness all the way though," but "excellently told." Glasgow stated that her third novel, The Voice of People (1900) was an objective view of the poor-white farmer in politics. The hero is a young Southerner who, having a genius for politics, rises above the masses and falls in love with a higher class girl. Her next novel, The Battle-Ground (1902), sold over 21,000 copies in the first two weeks after publication. It depicts the South before and during the Civil War and was hailed as "the first and best realistic treatment of the war from the southern point of view."
The Deliverance (1904) and her previous novel, The Battle-Ground, were written during her affair with Gerald B. They "are the only early books in which Glasgow's heroine and hero are united" by the novels' ends.
Glasgow's next four novels were written in what she considered her "earlier manner" and were received with mixed reviews. The Wheel of Life (1906) sold moderately well based on the success of The Descendant. Despite its commercial success, however, reviewers found the book disappointing. Set in New York, the story tells of domestic unhappiness and tangled love affairs. It was unfavorably compared to Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
's House of Mirth, which was published that same year. Most critics recommended that Glasgow “stick to the South.” Glasgow regarded the novel a failure.
The Ancient Law (1908) portrayed white factory workers in the Virginia textile industry, and analyzes the rise of industrial capitalism and its corresponding social ills. Critics found the book to be overly melodramatic. With The Romance of a Plain Man (1909) and The Miller of Old Church (1911) Glasgow began concentrating on gender traditions; she contrasted the conventions of the Southern woman with the feminist viewpoint, a direction which she continued in Virginia (1913).
In Virginia (1913) the title protagonist is a southern lady whose husband abandons her when he achieves success. The protagonist in Life and Gabriella is also abandoned by a weak-willed husband, but Gabriella becomes a self-sufficient, single mother who remarries well by the end of the novel. Glasgow published two more novels, The Builders (1919) and One Man in His Time (1922), as well as a set of short stories (The Shadowy Third and Other Stories (1923), before producing the novel of greatest personal importance, Barren Ground (1925).
In this novel, Glasgow felt she had successfully reversed the traditional seduction plot by producing a heroine completely freed from the southern patriarchal influence. She believed that writing Barren Ground, a “tragedy,” also freed her for her comedies of manners The Romantic Comedians (1926), They Stooped to Folly (1929), and The Sheltered Life (1932). These late works are considered the most artful criticism of romantic illusion in her career.
Glasgow produced two more "novels of character", The Sheltered Life (1932) and Vein of Iron (1935), in which she continued to explore female independence.
In 1941 she published In This Our Life, which won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942. In addition, it was quickly bought by Warner Brothers and adapted as a movie
In This Our Life
In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and...
by the same name, released in 1942.
Her autobiography, The Woman Within, published after her death, details her progression as an author and the influences essential for her becoming an acclaimed Southern woman writer.
Novels
- The Descendant (1897)
- Phases of an Inferior Planet (1898)
- The Voice of the People (1900)
- The Battle-Ground (1902)
- The Deliverance (1904)
- The Wheel of LifeThe Wheel of LifeThe Wheel of Life is a famous boulder problem in Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians of Australia.The problem which consists of over 60 moves was first completed by Dai Koyamada in 2004, and it links up several V8 to V15 problems that were established by climbers such as Klem Loskot and Fred...
(1906) - The Romance of a Plain Man (1909)
- VirginiaVirginia (novel)Virginia is a novel by Ellen Glasgow about a wife and mother who in vain seeks happiness by serving her family. This novel, her eleventh, marked a clear departure from Glasgow's previous work -- she had written a series of bestsellers before publishing Virginia -- in that it attacked, in a subtle...
(1913) - The Builders (1919)
- The Past (novel) (1920)
- One Man In His Time (novel) (1922)
- Barren Ground (1925)
- The Romantic Comedians (1926)
- They Stooped to Folly (1929)
- The Sheltered Life (1932)
- Vein of Iron (1935)
- In This Our LifeIn This Our Life (novel)thumb|1st edition cover In This Our Life is a 1941 novel by the American writer Ellen Glasgow. The title is a quote from the sonnet sequence Modern Love by George Meredith: "Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul/ When hot for certainties in this our life!" It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel...
(1941) (Pulitzer Prize for the Novel 1942) (filmed 1942 as In This Our LifeIn This Our LifeIn This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and...
)
Collections
- The Shadowy Third, and Other Stories (1923)
- The Collected Stories of Ellen Glasgow (12 stories (pp. 24–253), with an introduction by the editor (pp. 3–23))
External links
- Ellen Glasgow Society
- Photos of the first edition of In This Our Life
- Friends and Rivals: James Branch Cabell and Ellen Glasgow, Online exhibition, Virginia Commonwealth University