Publisher's Synopsis
In "Ellen Glasgow: a biography", Susan Goodman vividly brings the famously secretive writer to life, penetrating the myths, half-truths, and lies that have swirled around Glasgow since the publication of her first novel, "The descendent", in 1896.;Drawing on previously unpublished papers and personal interviews, Goodman uncovers the engrossing details of Glasgow's family history, social milieu, personal tragedies, and literary career.;Glasgow emerges from these pages as a woman of great courage, self discipline, and indomitable will who survived a sickly childhood, the premature deaths of her mother, Anne, and favourite sister, Cary , and the suicides of her brother Frank and brother-in-law George Walter McCormack, as well as the deafness which afflicted her from her early twenties.;Throughout her life, literature remained her driving passion, Goodman explores the genesis of each novel, detailing Glasgow's process of writing and offering incisive critical appraisals.;In the novels which were her life's work, Glasgow sought a commitment to truth beyond human weakness,to what she called the 'living pulse' of experience.;And in "Ellen Glasgow: a biography", Susan Goodman has emulated her subject perfectly, uncovering Glasgow's rich and complicated inner life and reasserting Glasgow's important position in America's literary history.
