Women and Writing

When I was too little to read, I would look at the illustrations in the front of my sister’s old Nancy Drew books and wish that I could read. The words in the rest of the books meant nothing to me, but I knew that the letters unlocked some world that I couldn’t yet join.

The Nancy Drew books were lined up on a bookshelf in the hallway, from the first one, The Secret of the Old Clock, to whatever was the last book written at the time. There were at least 30 of them, and since they were bought used, the color of the books varied depending on the edition, from 1930s baby blue to 1970s yellow.

I don’t remember the first time I read a Nancy Drew book, nor do I know how many times I read the whole series. It didn’t matter that the same things happened. I loved the characters and their world. Nancy Drew: intelligent, kind-hearted, and “plucky.” Her faithful friends Bess and George. Her worrying housekeeper Hannah Gruen. And her somewhat absent father Carson Drew.

Conflict, they say, is critical in storytelling. When I started writing a novel I was diligent in creating conflict my scenes. Lots of it. Heaps of it. But I realized I had missed developing kind and tender relationships between important characters. I missed creating the world in which I wanted to escape.

Kindness, tenderness, laughter…that’s the world I want to be in, and that’s the world I want to escape to when I read fiction.

My Nancy Drew books are in boxes under other layers of other books from later years, but they’re still there.

If I wanted to, I know I can still escape into that world. And even though I’m past the age in which they enthrall me, the thought of Nancy Drew still gives me comfort.

Do we demand perfection in famous women in history? Or can we accept that they struggle like we do?

Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of the classic Anne of Green Gables, is one of those people who is easy to idealized. Her character Anne loves nature, has a vivid imagination, and is driven to excel. Anne also has a tender heart. Perhaps that’s why we love the series so much.

No support by her men

Montgomery’s life was not as simple. A disciplined and prolific writer, she was involved romantically with men who were indifferent to her talent.

She was initially engaged to Edwin Simpson, who disregarded her writing. During her engagement to Simpson, she fell in love with Herman Leard, the son of the family with whom she boarded. He told her she was too ambitious. Fearing that he was not her intellectual equal, she broke off the relationship.

A disappointing marriage

After having success with her first two Anne novels, she married Reverend Ewan McDonald, a man she respected but did not love. He was jealous of her success. He insisted during their engagement that she stop writing a month, because he worried about her headaches and mental stress, even though writing made her feel better.

She juggled writing while filling the role of minister’s wife. McDonald was also not an ideal husband and had mental breakdowns. He treated his depression with prescription medicines.

Her own struggles

Montgomery herself struggled with depression. Her granddaughter, in 2008, on the 100^th anniversary of the publishing of Anne of Green Gables, revealed a family secret.

For years, it was said that Montgomery died of heart failure in 1942. The family believes she committed suicide through a drug overdose.

“I envy those who die in their sleep,” Montgomery once wrote her pen pal. “I have a horrible fear that I’ll die by inches.”

Does the manner of her death change how I think of her? No. “Die by inches.” I understand that.

One of the famous women in history is writer Jane Austen. We have images of her sitting around sipping tea, unconcerned about earning money.

That’s the way her nephew portrayed her when he wrote her biography over 50 years after her death.

But it’s not true. She was a businesswoman.

False hopes

Jane Austen was also tenacious. She began writing her novel Lady Susan at age 17, and made her first sale to a publisher 10 years later. The firm paid her a mere £10 in 1803. Ten pounds wasn’t much, even back then.

She waited for the publisher to print the book…but nothing happened. She became exasperated, unable to understand why a publisher would buy her novel and then just sit on it. Finally, in 1809, the publisher offered her the novel back to her for what he paid for it:  £10.

Sense and Sensibility pays off

In 1813, she found a publisher for Sense and Sensibility. The deal  was that the novel would be published on commission. The publisher would get 10% of all sales, and Austen would be liable for any losses. Her brother Henry later recalled that Austen kept a reserve out of her modest income to insure against a loss.

Austen made £140 pounds from sales of Sense and Sensibility. Not only was it a considerable sum, but it undoubtedly boosted her confidence in herself as a writer.

Not betting on Pride and Prejudice

Despite her success selling Sense and Sensibility on commission, Austen sold the copyright of Pride and Prejudice for £110 and the book was published in 1813. This time the publisher hit it big. Considering a third edition published in 1817, the publisher grossed about £575.

Cash is king

“I have now therefore written myself into £250.—which only makes me long for more,” wrote Jane to her brother Frank.

Critical acclaim was important, but that wasn’t enough. “Tho’ I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls Pewter too,” she wrote in 1814.

She needed the money. Unmarried, with her father dead and her brother in bankruptcy, she had to contribute to supporting herself and her family.

“I am very greedy & I want to make the most of it,” wrote Jane about the sales of Mansfield Park, which was first published in 1814 .

An untimely death

She did not live long enough to see her incredible popularity. She died in 1817, just 41-years-old. For a time in the 1820s, none of her books were not published.

Now, she’s everywhere.

Source: How Jane Austen conquered the World by Claire Harman

Harper Lee started out as a bold girl, a tomboy in Southern society where feminine attire is prized.

She found acceptance in one of the unlikeliest friendships, with Truman Capote, who lived next door. He was small in size but such a sharp dresser that his teacher said he stood out like a bird of paradise. Both of them didn’t fit in the small town of Monroeville, Alabama.

They both loved detective novels and devoured Sherlock Holmes. When Lee’s father brought them a typewriter, they took turns pounding out stories while the other dictated.

Capote’s mother soon moved to New York, and after dropping out of law school, Lee joined him in the City. While working at the airline reservation desk, she wrote her novel. Eventually, with guidance from her agent and an editor at Lippincott, she produced To Kill a Mockingbird.

She reportedly modeled her character Dill in the book after Capote. When her old friend asked her to go to Kansas in 1959 while she was waiting for her novel to be published, she went as an assistant researcher. Capote was investigating the murder of the Clutter family, working on a nonfiction work that would become his blockbuster, In Cold Blood.

Lee helped him with the interviewing, did the final editing, and even entertained  some of the people involved in the case when they visited New York. For all her work, Capote simply dedicated the book to her and to his long-time partner, with no mention of her extensive contributions.

Even more infuriating was the claim that Capote wrote the novel himself. The rumor is attributed to a literary critic and book editor Pearl Belle, who said that Capote had implied to her that he wrote the book. Capote’s father boasted to a reporter that his son had written almost all of the book. Capote did nothing to refute the claim.

Lee was offended. So was her older sister Alice, who told to a Chicago Tribune reporter in 2002 “That’s the biggest lie ever told.”

The friendship cooled. Capote would go on to be a member of the jet set, while Lee became a recluse, refusing to give reporters interviews.

A private person, she decided to live her life on her own terms.

The classic children’s novel Anne of Green Gables was written by Canadian L. M.  Montgomery.

Here’s two interesting facts about her:

1. Montgomery wrote in secret because of her family thought writing was a waste of time. She wrote “I struggled on alone, in secrecy and silence. I never told my ambitions and efforts and failures to anyone.”
2. She could hide her submissions to publishers–and their rejections–because she was an assistant postmistress. Anne of Green Gables was rejected several times before it was finally published in 1908.

Here’s 2 facts about Agatha Christie that may surprise you.

1. Agatha Christie is the bestselling writer of all time. Over 2 billion of her novels have been sold.
2. Agatha Christie wrote her first book in response to a challenge by her sister Madge. She had a good sister!