Kathleen Norris

Kathleen Norris in 1925, photograph by Arnold Genthe.
For the contemporary poet/essayist of the same name (b. 1947), see Kathleen Norris (poet)

Kathleen Thompson Norris (July 16, 1880 – January 18, 1966) was a popular American novelist and newspaper columnist. She was one of the most widely read and highest paid female writers in the United States for nearly fifty years, from 1911 to 1959. Her stories appeared in the Atlantic, The American Magazine, McClure's, Everybody's, Ladies' Home Journal and Woman's Home Companion, and she wrote 93 novels, many of which were best sellers. She used her fiction to promote values including the sanctity of marriage, the nobility of motherhood, and the importance of service to others.[1]

Life and career

Norris was born and died in San Francisco, California. When she was 19 both her parents died, and as the oldest sibling she became effectively the head of a large family. She had to become a breadwinner, and worked in a department store followed by an accounting office and then the Mechanic's Institute Library. She began writing short stories, and in 1905 enrolled in a creative writing program at the University of California, Berkeley. In September 1906 the San Francisco Call, which had published a few of her stories, hired her to write a society column. In the course of that work she met Charles Gilman Norris (whose late older brother was the famous novelist Frank Norris), and they soon fell in love. He moved to New York to be art editor of The American Magazine. After eight months of daily correspondence and some improvements in her family's financial situation, she joined him there and they were married in April 1909.

She resumed writing short stories, which began to appear in newspapers and then magazines starting in 1910. Charles took on a lifelong role as Kathleen's literary agent, and also took care of many household management roles as she became increasingly successful as a writer. Shortly after becoming a new mother, she wrote her first novel, Mother. It started as a short story in The American Magazine in 1911. A publisher asked her to expand it into a novelette, which became a national sensation and earned the praise of Theodore Roosevelt for its celebration of large families. A devout Catholic, she wrote the book in part as a commentary against birth control, which was rapidly influencing women's attitudes about motherhood. Her 1914 novel Saturday's Child received a positive, lengthy review from William Dean Howells, who remarked on her sensitivity to class issues.

Norris became involved in various social causes, including women's suffrage, Prohibition, pacifism, and organizations to benefit children and the poor.

Many of her novels were made into films, including My Best Girl (1927), The Callahans and the Murphys (1927), Passion Flower (1930), and Change of Heart (1934, based on the novel Manhattan Love Song).

Some of Norris's novels were adapted for a radio series, By Kathleen Norris, making her "the first nationally famous writer to have her works brought to radio listeners as a daily serial program."[2] The program, produced by Phillips Lord, was broadcast on CBS October 9, 1939 - September 26, 1941.[3]

Family

In 1919 the family moved to a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Saratoga, California, adjacent to the Villa Montalvo estate of James Duval Phelan. They later built a house in Palo Alto and spent summers at the ranch. Kathleen's sister Teresa, who had married William Rose Benét and borne three children, died in 1919. Kathleen fought for and eventually obtained guardianship of the two nieces and a nephew, Rosemary, Kathleen Anne and James Benét.

Her granddaughter Kathleen Norris (San Francisco 1 Mar 1935-San Francisco 8 Dec 1967) was the second wife of Prince Andrew Romanov (b. London 21 Jan 1923).

Selected bibliography

The Silver Sheet, a studio publication promoting Thomas Ince Productions, cover illustration of Christine of the Hungry Heart by Kathleen Norris

References

  1. ↑ Gumina, Deanna Paoli (2004). A Woman of Certain Importance: A Biography of Kathleen Norris. Illuminations Press. ISBN 0-937088-28-5.
  2. ↑ "Woman in Love" (PDF). Radio and Television Mirror. 13 (3): 22–24, 58–60. January 1940. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Dunning, John. (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Pp. 128-129.
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