American Writer Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894): A Biography
FAIN: FB-56384-12
Anne Boyd Rioux
University of New Orleans (New Orleans, LA 70148-0001)
This literary and cultural biography of Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894) will explore the combination of life circumstances and cultural influences that led Woolson to pursue a career as a serious literary artist, befriend some of the era’s most powerful literary men (including Henry James), spend her adult life traveling the U.S. and Europe, and ultimately commit suicide when she was fifty-three years old. However, I will emphasize that this final fact does not define her life, as it does in so many of the biographies and novels about James in which Woolson appears. Instead, what makes Woolson’s life particularly worth writing about is that it provides a hitherto under-recognized model of American female authorship in the nineteenth century. Hers was a public and geographically expansive career that enabled her to challenge her male peers, expose the grief of women artists in a climate of neglect and derision, and nonetheless achieve tremendous critical acclaim.
Media Coverage
Damned If She Does (Review)
Author(s): Brenda Wineapple
Publication: New York Times Book Reivew
Date: 2/29/2016
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/books/review/constance-fenimore-woolson-and-miss-grief-and-other-stories.html?smid=tw-nytbooks&smtyp=cur&_r=1
Lesson of the Masters (Review)
Author(s): Randall Fuller
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Date: 3/25/2016
URL: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lesson-of-the-masters-1458936685
Briefly Noted (Review)
Publication: The New Yorker
Date: 3/7/2016
URL: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/07/briefly-noted-mr-splitfoot-the-past-masters-of-empire-and-constance-fenimore-woolson
Reclaiming best-selling 19th century novelist from history’s dustbin (Review)
Author(s): Brenda Wineapple
Publication: The Boston Globe
Date: 3/10/2016
URL: https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2016/03/09/reclaiming-esteemed-best-selling-century-novelist-from-history-dustbin/EJXkQMZye4drLmxRUf2qBI/story.html
Review: 'Constance Fenimore Woolson,' by Anne Boyd Rioux (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Date: 3/23/2016
URL: http://www.startribune.com/review-constance-fenimore-woolson-by-anne-boyd-rioux/369352511/
Best Books of 2016 (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Chicago Tribune
Date: 12/21/2016
URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-best-books-2016-1218-20161221-story.html?
Ten Books to Read in February (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: BBC
Date: 1/29/2016
URL: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160129-ten-books-to-read-in-february
New and Noteworthy (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Times Higher Education
Date: 3/10/2016
URL: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/reviews-new-and-noteworthy-10-march-2016
Associated Products
Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist (Book)Title: Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist
Author: Anne Boyd Rioux
Abstract: Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894), who contributed to Henry James’s conception of his heroine Isabelle Archer in The Portrait of a Lady, was one of the most accomplished American writers of the nineteenth century. Yet today the best-known (and most-misunderstood) facts of her life are her relationship with James and her probable suicide in Venice. This first full-length biography of Woolson provides a fuller picture that reaffirms her literary stature.
Uncovering new sources, Anne Boyd Rioux evokes Woolson’s dramatic life. She was a grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper and was born in New Hampshire, but her family’s ill fortunes drove them west to Cleveland. Raised to be a conventional woman, Woolson was nonetheless thrust by her father’s death into the role of breadwinner, and yet, as a writer, she reached for critical as much as monetary reward.
Known for her powerfully realistic and empathetic portraits of post Civil–War American life, Woolson created compelling and subtle portrayals of the rural Midwest, Reconstruction-era South, and the formerly Spanish Florida, to which she traveled with her invalid mother. After her mother’s death, Woolson, with help from her sister, moved to Europe where expenses were lower, living mostly in England and Italy and spending several months in Egypt. While abroad, she wrote finely crafted foreign-set stories that presage Edith Wharton’s work of the next generation.
In this rich biography, Rioux reveals an exceptionally gifted and committed artist who pursued and received serious recognition despite the difficulties faced by female authors of her day. Throughout, Rioux goes deep into Woolson’s character, her fight against depression, her sources for writing, and her intimate friendships, including with Henry James, painting an engrossing portrait of a woman and writer who deserves to be more widely known today.
Year: 2016
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes
Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist (Book)Title: Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist
Author: Anne Boyd Rioux
Editor: Amy Cherry
Abstract: Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894), who contributed to Henry James’s conception of his heroine Isabelle Archer in The Portrait of a Lady, was one of the most accomplished American writers of the nineteenth century. Yet today the best-known (and most-misunderstood) facts of her life are her relationship with James and her probable suicide in Venice. This first full-length biography of Woolson provides a fuller picture that reaffirms her literary stature.
Uncovering new sources, Anne Boyd Rioux evokes Woolson’s dramatic life. She was a grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper and was born in New Hampshire, but her family’s ill fortunes drove them west to Cleveland. Raised to be a conventional woman, Woolson was nonetheless thrust by her father’s death into the role of breadwinner, and yet, as a writer, she reached for critical as much as monetary reward.
Known for her powerfully realistic and empathetic portraits of post Civil–War American life, Woolson created compelling and subtle portrayals of the rural Midwest, Reconstruction-era South, and the formerly Spanish Florida, to which she traveled with her invalid mother. After her mother’s death, Woolson, with help from her sister, moved to Europe where expenses were lower, living mostly in England and Italy and spending several months in Egypt. While abroad, she wrote finely crafted foreign-set stories that presage Edith Wharton’s work of the next generation.
In this rich biography, Rioux reveals an exceptionally gifted and committed artist who pursued and received serious recognition despite the difficulties faced by female authors of her day. Throughout, Rioux goes deep into Woolson’s character, her fight against depression, her sources for writing, and her intimate friendships, including with Henry James, painting an engrossing portrait of a woman and writer who deserves to be more widely known today.
Year: 2016
Primary URL:
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=4294989788Primary URL Description: Publisher's webpage for the book.
Secondary URL:
https://anneboydrioux.com/books/constance-fenimore-woolson-portrait-of-a-lady-novelist-2/Secondary URL Description: Page on my website, with excerpts from reviews and blurbs.
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 0393245098
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes