Margaret Wilson (writer)
Encyclopedia
Margaret Wilson was an American novelist. She was awarded the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for The Able McLaughlins
.
, Wilson grew up on a farm and attended the University of Chicago, earning degrees in 1903 and 1904. She then became a missionary in the service of the United Presbyterian Church of North America
. While assigned to the Punjab region of India
, she worked at a girl's school and at a hospital. She returned to the U.S. in 1910 because of illness and resigned from her position as a missionary in 1916. She spent the year 1912-13 at the divinity school of the University of Chicago
. Then she taught for five years at West Pullman
High School. Throughout these years she cared for her invalid father and published her short stories in a variety of magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly.
The themes found throughout her writings include the secondary status of women and the role of religion. When she won a $2,000 prize offered by Harper & Brothers in 1923, her name was unknown because she had signed her short stories in Harper's Magazine
"An Elderly Spinster." Her work is of interest in part for its exploration of feminist issues in a domestic context set against a background of an unsympathetic judicial system. She described herself as "the most Middle Western of Middle Westerners" and said that "she wrote for women readers from a woman's point of view. Two of her novels draw on her experiences in India. Written more than a decade after her return, she "managed to transform her more painful experiences into deeply sympathetic and engaging fiction." Daughters of India explores the world of polygamy and Trousers of Taffeta more specifically focuses on a woman's need to produce a male heir.
In 1923, she married George Douglas Turner, a Scotsman she had met in India nineteen years earlier, after which she remained resident in England. Turner was a tutor at Brasenose College, Oxford
. He later served as warden of Dartmoor Prison
. Penal reform inspired her non-fiction study The Crime of Punishment (1931) and two novels, The Dark Duty (1931) and The Valiant Wife (1933), both "melodramatic romances...constructed around the philosophical and dramatic problems of prison administration and reform." Besides her eight adult novels, she also wrote a novel for children, The Devon Treasure Mystery (1939), in which two girls and four boys become amateur detectives and search for a long lost treasure.
One summary of her critical reception concludes:
Graham Greene
, in a review of The Law and the McLaughlins, wrote: "She has an admirable gift for very simple direct narrative, and her theme has always been passionately realized in terms of human beings.... we are always aware of a writer of fine moral discrimination and a passionate awareness of individual suffering."
The Able McLaughlins
The Able McLaughlins is a 1923 novel by Margaret Wilson first published by Harper & Brothers. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1924.It won the Harper Prize Novel Contest for 1922-23, the first time the prize was awarded....
.
Life
Born in Traer, IowaTraer, Iowa
Traer is a city in Tama County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,594 at the 2000 census. James "Tama Jim" Wilson lived in Traer after serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and was buried in a cemetery northwest of the town in 1920. Traer is known for the iron winding staircase that...
, Wilson grew up on a farm and attended the University of Chicago, earning degrees in 1903 and 1904. She then became a missionary in the service of the United Presbyterian Church of North America
United Presbyterian Church of North America
The United Presbyterian Church of North America was an American Presbyterian denomination that existed for exactly one hundred years. It was formed on May 26, 1858 by the union of the Northern branch of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church with the Associate Presbyterian Church at a...
. While assigned to the Punjab region of India
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
, she worked at a girl's school and at a hospital. She returned to the U.S. in 1910 because of illness and resigned from her position as a missionary in 1916. She spent the year 1912-13 at the divinity school of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago Divinity School
The University of Chicago Divinity School is a graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries...
. Then she taught for five years at West Pullman
West Pullman, Chicago
West Pullman is a neighborhood located on the far south side of the city of Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago...
High School. Throughout these years she cared for her invalid father and published her short stories in a variety of magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly.
The themes found throughout her writings include the secondary status of women and the role of religion. When she won a $2,000 prize offered by Harper & Brothers in 1923, her name was unknown because she had signed her short stories in Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
"An Elderly Spinster." Her work is of interest in part for its exploration of feminist issues in a domestic context set against a background of an unsympathetic judicial system. She described herself as "the most Middle Western of Middle Westerners" and said that "she wrote for women readers from a woman's point of view. Two of her novels draw on her experiences in India. Written more than a decade after her return, she "managed to transform her more painful experiences into deeply sympathetic and engaging fiction." Daughters of India explores the world of polygamy and Trousers of Taffeta more specifically focuses on a woman's need to produce a male heir.
In 1923, she married George Douglas Turner, a Scotsman she had met in India nineteen years earlier, after which she remained resident in England. Turner was a tutor at Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...
. He later served as warden of Dartmoor Prison
Dartmoor (HM Prison)
HM Prison Dartmoor is a Category C men's prison, located in Princetown, high on Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. Its high granite walls dominate this area of the moor...
. Penal reform inspired her non-fiction study The Crime of Punishment (1931) and two novels, The Dark Duty (1931) and The Valiant Wife (1933), both "melodramatic romances...constructed around the philosophical and dramatic problems of prison administration and reform." Besides her eight adult novels, she also wrote a novel for children, The Devon Treasure Mystery (1939), in which two girls and four boys become amateur detectives and search for a long lost treasure.
One summary of her critical reception concludes:
- [Her] novels have been disparaged for a variety of weaknesses...and almost all her plots rely too heavily on coincidence. Her sharp sociological observations provide valuable insight for students of cultural history, however; in addition, her strengths as a novelist are evident in the detailed, naturalistic portraits of the daily lives of her characters, and in her inability [sic] to involve the reader in the problems her characters face.
Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, in a review of The Law and the McLaughlins, wrote: "She has an admirable gift for very simple direct narrative, and her theme has always been passionately realized in terms of human beings.... we are always aware of a writer of fine moral discrimination and a passionate awareness of individual suffering."
Novels
- The Able McLaughlinsThe Able McLaughlinsThe Able McLaughlins is a 1923 novel by Margaret Wilson first published by Harper & Brothers. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1924.It won the Harper Prize Novel Contest for 1922-23, the first time the prize was awarded....
(1923), reprinted by Cherokee Publishing Company, Atlanta, GA, 2007 ISBN 9780877972884 - The Kenworthys (1925)
- The Painted Room (1926), sequel to The Kenworthys
- Daughters of India (1928), reprinted by Oxford University Press, 2007 (edited by Ralph Crane) ISBN 0195685865
- Trousers of Taffeta (1929)
- The Dark Duty (1931)
- The Valiant Wife (1933)
- The Law and the McLaughlinsThe Law and the McLaughlinsThe Law and the McLaughlins is a 1936 novel by Margaret Wilson first published by Doubleday , Doran & Company, Inc.. It was a sequel to her earlier Pulitzer-prize winning The Able McLaughlins....
(1936), sequel to The Able McLaughlins
Sources
- Webster's Biographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: G. and C. Merriam, 1980)