Sturdy Oak, The.
[Suffrage, NY]. Jordan, Elizabeth (ed.). The Sturdy Oak. A composite Novel of American Politics by fourteen American authors: Samuel Merwin Harry Leon Wilson Fannie Hurst Dorothy Canfield Kathleen Norris Henry Mitchell Webster Anne O'Hagan Mary Heaton Vorse Alice Duer Miller Ethel Watts Mumford Marjorie Benton Cooke William Allen White Mary Austin Leroy Scott. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1917.
12mo.; 346 pp.; illustrated by Henry Raleigh with full-page black-and-white drawings; smooth olive green cloth with orange banner at front panel bearing an oak tree as decoration, black edge rules with decorative motifs at corners and black stamping; title, oak leaf design, and publisher with double-rules at head and foot, all in gold-gilt at the spine; paper splitting a little at rear hinge; touches of wear to binding with lower edges, tips and foot of spine showing light shelf wear; near fine.
First edition. Composite novel written in support of the 1917 suffrage referendum. The novel, based on a theme devised by Mary Austin, was written so as to appear serially during the “autumn Campaign of 1917.” The editor notes that each writer contributed his or her services: “every dollar realized by the serial and book publication of 'The Sturdy Oak' will be devoted to the Suffrage Cause.”
The contributors represent an interesting cross-section. Mary Austin ((1868-1934), of course, is best know for her classic The Land Of Little Rain and other books and novels of western life. Marjorie Benton Cooke (1876-1920), novelist, also wrote monologues in support of women’s rights. Her “On Woman’s Rights,” for example, has the speaker declaring that women should have the right to “manage yer [home], yer children, an' yer husband to suit yerself'.” Dorothy Canfield [Fisher] (1879-1958), novelist, short story writer, was for many years the sole woman on the selection board of the Book of the Month Club. She helped introduce the Montessori method to the United States with her A Montessori Mother (1912) and in novels such as The Home-Maker looked at the roles of men and women. Fannie Hurst (1887-1968) authored 17 novels and some 300 short stories as well as movie and radio scripts, etc. Feminist Companion describes her as “the country’s highest-earning fiction-writer throughout the 1920s and 1930s,” but she was also “an ardent, respected reformer...and supporter of women’s, blacks' and workers' rights.” Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942), novelist and poet, graduated from Barnard College in 1899 and even after marriage continued to write full-time. She lectured and campaigned for women’s rights, writing titles such as Are Women People? and Women Are People! in support of women’s suffrage. Kathleen Norris (1880-1966), novelist, journalist and short story writer, often featured the struggles of working girls in her writings and as an activist supported suffrage, international peace, elimination of capital punishment among other reforms. Mary Heaton Vorse (1874-1966), journalist and novelist, was one of the founders of the influential Provincetown Players as well as a founding member of the Masses. Her reputation as a journalist was built around the articles and books she wrote on labors issues in which she emphasized the underestimated strength and courage of women workers. Not to overlook their male counterparts, William Allen White (1868-1944) was a distinguished journalist and editor who served as a member of the executive committee for Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party. Harry Leon Wilson, humorist and playwright, is best remembered today for his work with Booth Tarkington. Such composite novels were popular turn-of-the-century fare. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett (just to name a few) contributed to such volumes. This is the only composite novel we know, however, of to have been written with a suffrage theme and specifically for the 1917 campaign.
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