Ellen Glasgow

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was born on 22nd April 1873 in Richmond, Virginia.

She published her first novel ‘The Descendant’ anonymously in 1897 at age 24. 

As a ‘Southern’ writer much of her work integrates themes of class and gender struggles, many of them based on her own experiences and relationships. She wrote realistically of the changing contemporary South; very different from the then idealistic escapist fare after Reconstruction.

As the women's suffrage movement developed at the turn of the century Glasgow was very active, but later felt it had come at the wrong time for her, accordingly her enthusiasm waned although her later books did have heroines who displayed their ambitions in the social and political struggle.

In 1923 came her short story collection ‘The Shadowy Third & Other Stories’ which included ‘The Difference’, a classic tale of a marriage hitting a problem and the moral and realistic reaction to that.

Further works followed and, in 1941, she published ‘In This Our Life’. This bold and progressive book on African-Americans, followed the central characters and portrayed the blatant injustices they faced in society. It won the Pulitzer Prize the following year.

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow died in her sleep at home on 21st November 1945. She was 72.