W01\1EN ARE HUMAN WOMEN'S STUDIES LIBRARY THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY Volume 7 November 17, 1978 Number 11 REVIEWS other ways. She does not seem to in- Materials in the OSU Libraries about, tend to paint such a negative picture-- for and by women (the location is in- but negative it is. On the other hand, dicated above each number). To de- Goldsmith is aware of some of the pos- termine if a copy is available call 422-3900. sible psychological reasons behind the behavior of this rather bizarre person; the trouble is that she plays armchair psychiatrist too often. Then there is WOMEN'S Gilbert, Julie Goldsmith. Goldsmith's enormously annoying habit STUDIES Ferber, a biography. of repeating herself, and others, from PS3511 Garden City, New York, chapter to chapter and using incredibly E66Z8 G5 Doubleday & Co., 1978. pretentious language. She glibly uses "lagniappe"--a word I had to look up Edna Ferber's biography has been writ- in the dictionary--and frequently attri- ten by her great-niece, Julie Gilbert butes its use to others, as in this Goldsmith, who certainly seems to want sentence, allegedly spoken or written us to like Ferber, remember her for the by Kate Steichen, then an editor: many huge books she wrote, and gain " ••• At Doubleday we iust didn't take an insight into how Ferber lived on a any lagniappe or gravy from authors--let scale comparable to her books. These alone agents." My response to that books are huge in scope, and huge in comes from an old favorite line in the verbiage. Ferber comes off as huge in New Yorker magazine -- "Quotes we an extremely unpleasant temperament. doubt " She bought off everyone--her friends, her family, even casual acquaintances-- There is much of interest in this book with costly gifts. Then she enslaved, about Ferber, the times she lived in, making recipients pay homage to her and how she worked on her very good and e v ery whim and imagined need. famous books. But her niece overstates, overwrites, and ultimately bores. Too Ferber, as Goldsmith points out, fre- bad. Ferber would have hated boring quently was a genuine "character," and anyone. that may be why she had so many friends among the literary, theatrica l, elitist MIM world of her time. But she certainly was a difficult character, if this biog raphy is true. Mo st difficult were her constant rages, tantrums of amazing pro- FERBER BIBLIOGRAPHY portion; the s lightest offense was mag nified and brought on a Ferber storm. Edna Ferber was a surprisingly prolific Sh e ruined many an evening or dinner author, though many of her works are party among her friends by her raging little known. The titles listed are in anger and vituperative tongue. This chronological order. Sev eral are avail- biography does anything but make Ferber able in different editions with v arying : a person to be liked. call numbers; each title is listed only; once. Interester persons are e ncouraged Golds mith is filled with love, com- to check the Main Library public cata- passion, affection for the great-aunt log or LCS f or a more complete list of who h e lped her financially and in many editions a nd available copies . 2 PS3511 Ferber, Edna. EL140 Stage door. (With Georges. E66 03 Dawn O'Hara. 1911. F346St Kaufman). 1936. 1911 Novel; first publication. Play about the theater. PS3511 Roast beef, medium. 1913. PS3511 Come and get it. 1936. E66R6 Short stories. E66 C6 Novel about Polish-Americans 1913 1935a working the Wisconsin lumber mills. PS3511 Personality plus. 1914. E66P4 Short stories. 1914 PS3511 The girls. 1936. E66 G53 Novel treating three genera- EL140 Emma Mcchesney & Co. 1915. 1936 tions of a family. F346Em Short stories. PS3511 Fanny herself. 1917. PS3511 Nobody's in town. 1938. E66F3 Semiautobiographical novel. E66 N6 Short stories. 1917 1938a EL140 Half portions. 1920. F346Ha Short stories. PS3511 A peculiar treasure. 1939. E66Z53 Autobiography. EL140 $1200 a year. 1920. 1939 F346Tw Play. EL140 The land is bright. 1941. PS3511 Cheerful, by request. 1922. F346La Play; stunning failure. E66 C4 Short stories. 1918 PS3511 Saratoga trunk. 1941. E66 S3 Set in Saratoga, New York in PS3511 Gigolo. 1922. 1941 the lBBO's; later a Ferber- E66 G52 Short stories. Kaufman musical. 1922 EL140 Old man Minick. 1924. PS3511 Great son. 1945. F346 01 Short story, produced as play E66 G7 Novel about Seattle. Minick. 1945a PS3511 So big. 1924. PS35ll One basket. 1947. E66 S61 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel E66 05 Short stories. 1924 about a woman truck gardener who sacrifices all for her PS3511 Giant. 19·52. s on. E66 GS Controversial portrayal of PS3511 Show boat. 1926. Texas life; later made into E66 S4 Life among a showboat troupe; movie featuring James Dean. 1926a produced as musical. PS3511 Ice palace. 1958. PS3511 Mother knows best. 1927. E66 12 Story of Alaskan frontier; E66 M6 Short stories. 1958 had a powerful influence upon 1927 statehood. Movie featured Richard Burton and Robert PS3511 Cimarron. 1930. Ryan. E66 CS Story of the 1889 Oklahoma land rush; produced a s movie. PS3511 A kind of magic. 1963. EL140 They brought their women. E66 Z52 Autobiography; much more preachy than Peculiar Treas- F346th 1933. 1963a !2_ Short stories. ure, not as successful. EL140 American beauty. 1936. pp F346Am Nove l featuring Polish immi- grants in Connecti c ut. 3 WOMEN'S Forbes, Thomas Rogers. WOMEN'S Brant~, Charlotte. STUDIES The midwife and the witch. STUDIES Two tales by Charlotte Brottt~: RG950 New Haven, Yale University PR4165 "The Secret" and "Lily Hart." F6 Press, 1966. AG 1978 Columbia, Univ. of Missouri Press, 1978. Forbes has written a virtually unread- able book on what should be a fascina- This is a fascinating book for the ting subject. The author discusses Brent~ devotee. The two stories, writ- such diverse topics as superstition, ten by Charlotte Brant~ before she was sex reversal in animals, magic charms, seventeen, are presented both in edited and word derivation. Throughout this version and in facsimile of the originaJ convoluted tangle, one queries: what manuscript, particularly interesting is the thesis? What does this have to because the Brent~ juvenilia are char- do with witches and midwives? Forbes acterized by their minute size and al- starts out very cleverly with the quo- most microscopic handwriting. (The tation, "A whistling maid and a crow- editor tells us that this manuscript is ing hen are neither for gods nor men," four sheets of notepaper folded into but wanders off to analyze "pseudo- a sixteen-page book of four and one hermaphroditism, bilateral gynandro- half inches long and containing 19,000 morphs, the entomolcgical derivation words.) Part of a huge body of litera- of heifer, freemartin, rd.dgeling," and ture written by the Brent~ children, so on. Unfortunately, the disparate this manuscript was not available to elements of this work never congeal to scholars until 1973, having been a part form anything of substance. of the private collection of Evelyn Symington. LF MF "The Secret" and "Lily Hart" are val- uable mainly because they provide WOMEN'S Fine, Elsa Honig. hints of the creative energy and the- Women and art: A history of STUDIES matic interests of the later Brant~. N43 women painters and sculptors Set against backgrounds of bigamy, de- F56 from the Renaissance to the ceit, passion and suffering, these stor- 20th Century. ies foreshadow many of Bront~'s con- London, Allenhead and Schram, cerns in Jane Eyre. "The Secret" shows 1978. us a phase in the development of the Byronic character, Zamorna, who is the Ms. Fine asks in her introduction, prototype for the Rochester of Jane "Where is there a woman artist equal to Eyre. The original St. John Rivers, any man among the greatest masters?" also of Jane Eyre, appears in "Lily Her following chapters answer that Hart" as John of Fidena. question. Starting with the Italian Renaissance and working through to the Part of the literature involving the American and European modern art move- Bront~s' imaginary Kingdom of Angria, ments, Fine introduces the reader to these stories reflect the fantasy over one hundred women masters of art. world Charlotte Brant~ was later to There is a brief biography and a criti- renounce, describing it as "that burn- cal analysis of the work of each artist. ing clime where we have sojourned too Numerous quality illustrations of their long--its skies aflame ••. " art work increase understanding of the artists, as well as add to the physical Another work which more comprehensive- beauty of the book. ly presents the complex cycle of liter- ature that occupied the Bront~s in Fine has divided her readable and in- their early years is Fannie Ratchford's teresting text by historical periods. The Bront~s' Web of Childhood (Main, For each, she discusses the art of that PR4168R3). age, and the role and status of women in that period. This survey book is BR a valuable work for art historians, students of women's history, and all patrons of art. PS 4 EDUCATION Van Alstyne, Carol, et al. Rachel, in The Jest of God (the film LB 2335.5 Administrative compensation Rachel, Rachel), for the spinster cs survey. Women and minori- schoolteacher; Hagar Shipley, in The ties in administration of Stone Angel, for the old woman facing higher education institutions. the reality of death; Morag, in The Washington, D.C., College and Diviners, for the novelist. Take~ University Personnel Associa- collectively, Laurence's major char- tion, 1977. acters offer an impressive statement; they "are all women seeking libera- This is the most depressing survey I tion." Furthermore, she has created have ever examined.