In memory of Edna Ferber (1885-1968)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Edna Ferber was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., Aug. 15, 1885, the daughter of a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Ferber, and his Milwaukee-born wife, Julia Neumann Ferber. In some sources, perhaps because of vanity, she claimed to have been born in 1887, but census documents show otherwise. Ferber was a prolific and popular novelist.

She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924 for So Big, the story of a woman raising a child on a truck farm outside of Chicago. Others of her best known books include Showboat (1926), Cimarron (1929), Giant (1952) and Ice Palace (1958).

She died of cancer at age 82 on April 16, 1968, at her Park Avenue, New York, home. In a lengthy obituary, the New York Times said, "Her books were not profound, but they were vivid and had a sound sociological basis. She was among the best-read novelists in the nation, and critics of the 1920s and '30s did not hesitate to call her the greatest American woman novelist of her day."

To read more: 

http://elisarolle.com/romance/romance_history_edna_ferber.htm