Category: Literary Women in Histor

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Literary Women in Histor

Margaret Elizabeth Sangster: Conversations with a Wise Friend

I stash books in every corner of my home. There’s not a single wall in my house where you won’t see at least one vintage book artfully displayed. I rescue old volumes in cloth covers with pre-1940s copyrights. When I’m thrifting or browsing for treasures in antique shops, my eyes are alert to catch a gold embossed hardcover spine by a classic author. My mantle is a showplace for early volumes of Dickens, Tennyson, and Van Dyke—notable names among a host of lesser-knowns, but no less worthy wordsmiths in their day.

Vintage books are my favorite reads and go-to props for decorating year-round. Recently I came across a volume that captured my attention with a gold embossed spine and faded portrait of a gentle woman’s face on the cover.

It was that of 19th century American poet, author, and editor, Margaret Elizabeth Sangster. In her day, she was a prolific writer who explored family and faith themes with thoughtful devotional reflections, hymns, and sacred texts.

Born in 1838, she lived in New York and New Jersey, growing up in a Christian home. Honing her writing skills in her youth, she delayed her publishing aspirations throughout her thirteen-year marriage to George Sangster, until his death in 1871. A widow in her mid-thirties, she chose not to remarry, and pursued a career as writer/editor with a number of popular publications for women and Christian readers including Hearth and Home and Harper’s Bazaar. She was a contributing writer to Ladies’ Home Journal, The Christian Herald, and dispensed wisdom in a regular column of the Woman’s Home Companion. In addition, she published several volumes of children’s stories, poetry, and inspirational collections for women—including The Joyful Life, published in 1903 by the American Tract Society—my new treasure for devotional reading.

As we enter a new year holding great promise for Christians world-wide, and especially for writers creatively communicating Christ through their words, it is useful to review the timeless advice from writers of the past. We learn that, as a society, we don’t really change as much as we like to think we do. The window dressings of style and trends might—but the driving force of the human heart condition does not. Like Jesus, humans are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow—ever in need of His saving grace and wise words for practical application in whatever epoch of time God has allotted to us.

Mrs. Sangster’s 19th century words soak into my heart and mind as we enter 2019. Her gentle compassion and compelling wisdom in applying biblical principles to everyday life read fresh and relevant to my life as a Christian woman a century after she penned the words.

So, to kick off this new year, I invite you to visit with Mrs. Sangster in select excerpts from a chapter of The Joyful Life, published by the American Tract Society in 1903. We listen in on a vintage conversation between the author and her intimate friend from school days, Miriam.

May you drink deep from her wells of wisdom and listen to this woman writer’s heart in this New Year’s Meditation:

Of Old School Days: “There Were Well Educated Women”

 One of my old schoolmates, a girl who used to sit at the same desk with me when we were in our teens, came not long ago to make me a little visit. In our different ways we have both been very busy since those bright days when we studied French verbs and Latin conjugations together, and dipped into mathematics and explored ancient history, albeit our school was only a seminary for young ladies, and the era of the woman’s college had not yet dawned.

In passing, let me say a good word for the fidelity of the old-time preceptors and the thoroughness of the instruction they imparted. I am not disposed to undervalue anything in the latter curriculum, but there were well-educated women, cultured, disciplined, and broadened by their intellectual training, before the great colleges set wide doors open for the entrance of girl students. After all, the best result of an education course is seen in its success in putting tools in the hand for use in the life-work, and in the symmetry with which it develops character.

Of Aging Well: “The Golden Age of the Grandmother”

Miriam is a bright, breezy person whose heart is the gayer because she is the mother of a house full of children, and has always had young people about her, needing her counsel. She does not look her real age, but then nobody does that any longer; we are all ten years younger than we used to be, so much more closely do we follow the laws of health, and so much greater is the ease of modern living, what with labor-saving contrivances and luxuries of which our mothers and grandmothers never dreamed.

Today, the woman, married or single, who is under forty years is a young woman, and her looks convey no other impression. At fifty the gracious lady bears herself as thirty-five was wont to do two score years ago, and the active person of sixty is far from claiming immunity from service, or any privileges of ease, on account of her age. Miriam and I felicitated ourselves that this is the golden age of the grandmother.

On Passing Years: “The Seasons Do Glide Faster”

“But, my dear,” said my friend musingly, “how short the years are getting to be. Don’t you recall what a long, long space of time a year was when we were children? Now twelve months is a little flitting period, which makes one think of the simile of a bird flying through a lighted hall, from blackness to blackness.”

“Well,” I answered, “I grant that the seasons do glide faster with one than of old, but I think it is simply because I have so much to do, and so many complex interests. I can fancy, however, those to whom the progress of time is slow enough, even in old age. The man who was once in the midst of affairs, but on whom a creeping paralysis has set its fettering hand; the woman chained to her bed by a cruelly torturing malady; the prisoner in his cell; the stranger lonely among strangers, may not find the years so swift. Part of the restlessness which makes some old people so unhappy is no doubt due to the fact that their empty days have grown slow and dragging, that there is no flavor left for them in life’s cup. People in the shadow of grief always suffer from the tedium of the days. The mourner’s days move at a snail’s pace.”

On Resolutions: “Turning the Fresh Page”

After a while she said, “Another year is coming. Are you making any new departures, any new resolves? There is something attractive about turning the fresh page, isn’t there?”

“I have long felt that every day is a fresh beginning, and I have laid aside the habit, if I ever had it, of celebrating the new year as a special place for good resolutions. I do like, though, to signalize it by some particular pleasure, to meet my friends and kinsfolk then, and to exchange greetings and good wishes with them. If the calendar did nothing else, it would remind us that the chances for making our beloved ones happy are lessening and that we ought to avail ourselves of every coming opportunity to scatter sunshine on the pathway of all we meet.”

On the Christian Race: “A Daily Definite Study of the Bible”

“But,” persisted Miriam, “you would not influence others to pass by a New Year’s milestone without some effort to start anew in the Christian race, would you? Suppose you were talking to a crowd of students, is there nothing you could suggest as very apposite to them at such a time?”

“For one thing, I said, I would counsel all who have never done it, to begin on January first a daily definite study of the Bible. There is a good deal of Bible study just now, it is true, but also, in hundreds of Christian homes, and by thousands of young men and women, the Bible is a neglected book. The young people who are familiar with the Scriptures are not too numerous—those I mean who can turn at an instant’s call, without hesitation or embarrassment, to any reference text in the prophets, the psalms, or the New Testament. We live in an age of much literary enterprise, when the printing press scatters new books as the forest trees scatter leaves in the autumn; when newspapers are multitudinous, and every man, woman, and child reads something. That many otherwise liberally educated men and women do not know the Scriptures, even as literature, is a misfortune, for they are a treasury of noble words in many incomparable styles. And, by searching them, those who would obtain eternal life still are required by the Divine Author. Yes, I wish I could urge the young people of our land, wherever they are, to begin to read the Bible daily, to read it through in course, or to read it for its poetry, history, and philosophy. I wish they would read it for the life of the Master. On a shelf in my library are many lives of Christ. But none equals, nor approaches, the life so simply revealed in the gospels of the four evangelists.”

 On Youth: “A Clever Young Girl Was With Us”

This talk of ours was resumed on another occasion when Miriam and I were not alone. A clever young girl was with us, and she had her opinion and expressed it very earnestly.

“I know,” she said, “what people of my age need, and that is agreeable companionship. We are restless and dissatisfied unless we are in the midst of things. I would tell everyone I knew, especially if she or he happened to be a little blue, as young people often are, to get to work, not merely in wage-earning work, though for many that is a necessity and to some a resource and duty, but to join a Christian Endeavor Society and give to it the best one could. A good time to join the procession of Christian workers is surely the New Year. I do think young people should assist their pastors more than they do, and what better season for a start than at this very time?

So spoke Caroline, and we older women agreed with her. The only life worth living is the life of Christian love. If it be a life after the fair Christ-pattern, it will be a life poured out for others, and therefore very blessed.

On Filling the Days: “With Contentment, Surrender, and Sweetness”

Friends, methinks we stand in the portal of another year. God gives us more days, more weeks, how many or how few we know not, but they are sent straight from heaven, and we are to use them for him. Have we made mistakes? It is not too late to rectify them. Have we committed sin? We may find cleansing in the fountain where all uncleanliness is washed away. Have we been discouraged? “As thy days, thy strength shall be,” is the word of the Lord to our weariness and faintness. As we wait, not knowing what shall be on the morrow, we many fill the measure of today with contentment, surrender and sweetness. And from the sky the everlasting Father, speaking to our need, says, “Certainly I will be with thee!”

Portions of this article were adapted from originally published works by Kathryn Ross in RUBY Magazine, December 2016 and January 2017— It includes an edited version of the chapter “A New Year Meditation” from the book The Joyful Life by Margaret E. Sangster, published by the American Tract Society in 1903. To enjoy the full chapter in an audio dramatization, visit The Writer’s Reverie PODCAST.

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

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Literary Women in Histor

Mildred Wirt Benson: Woman Writer Whodunit

I’ve decked the halls at the Ross Ranch with all manner of Christmas splendors, adorning trees and every random corner of the house for the holidays.

I have three Christmas trees, each dressed in a different theme: The Victorian, The Woodland, and The Vintage Childhood. I love them all but am especially partial to The Vintage Childhood because it reflects my personal memories of Christmas past in my 1960s youth. Vintage ornaments from the era drape the branches, while displayed underneath are some of the actual toys I received on long ago Christmas mornings. I enjoy them more today, decades later, than at the first.

One of the treasures I found each year under the tree during my elementary school days was a new Nancy Drew Mystery Story. My collection of titles still holds a place of honor on our library shelves. I knew I could count on Santa to have a Nancy Drew mystery waiting for me on Christmas morn. The cover and frontispiece prepared me for what to expect once I started reading. I was never disappointed.

Only inspired.

I credit Nancy Drew as my earliest writing mentor. Reading her mystery adventures became more than just the absorbing of a captivating story. It stirred the latent author within me. I wanted to be able to write a book just like Carolyn Keene.

But, if Nancy Drew’s life was full of mysteries, Carolyn Keene was a mystery in and of herself. I could learn nothing about her when I was young. Other authors might be featured in magazines with photographs and details of their personal lives. But not Carolyn Keene.

When I dug a little deeper on the subject through the years, I learned that Carolyn Keene was a pen name for an anonymous writer shrouded in mystery. In fact, she had been hidden from public view since the first Nancy Drew book was written in 1929. By the time I started reading them in the mid to late 1960s, dozens of her detective adventures had been published.

But not until a court case in 1980 regarding the publishers of the series, did Nancy Drew fans learn the secret behind the mystery of how these beloved children’s books came to be written by a journalist named Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson. After some 50 years, the woman behind the whodunits finally revealed herself to almost four generations of fans eager to meet her.

The Woman Whodunit

Born in 1905, Mildred earned an English degree in three years from the University of Iowa in 1925, and in 1927 earned a master’s degree in journalism. Seeking good pay for her writing, she answered an ad in the newspaper from the Stratemeyer Syndicate seeking freelance writers.

Edward Stratemeyer knew the book industry inside and out—especially the reading demographics of prospective book buyers. He zeroed in on engaging books for young people and created a host of characters and story worlds producing over 1300 titles in children’s fiction during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among them, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Dana Girls, Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, and more, catapulted the Stratemeyer Syndicate to over 500 million in sales.

Alone, Stratemeyer could never have accomplished such a feat. But working within a syndicate model, he had the power to create a publishing behemoth. He sought out young, talented authors as ghostwriters and tooled them with the framework for each individual book series. Storylines, plot twists, characters, and settings were outlined and assigned to a freelance writer under a pen name. The writer’s contract required that they never reveal themselves as the author of the book for which they were paid a flat rate of $125 to $250 per book—about 3 months’ pay for a newspaper reporter of the time.

In 1929, Mildred was handed the outline for a new mystery series for girls featuring a spunky young gal named Nancy Drew. In her able hands, Nancy’s personality materialized, setting in stone the specifics of her adventurous sleuthing character and story world in 23 of the first 30 books in the series. Each became a best seller.

As a ghostwriter of the series, Mildred had no rights to her manuscripts or the famous Carolyn Keene pen name. When Stratemeyer died in 1930, his two daughters took control of the syndicate, continuing to work with Mildred on the Nancy Drew series through 1947. The books gave girls of the depression and WWII era a heroine unlike any other in their time.

Each generation since, the books have had an editorial uptick. For instance, the original 1930s-1950s Nancy Drew stories and illustrations capture that time period in fashion and setting. But the books I read in the 1960s—the same stories—possessed minor edits in the manuscript and illustrations that brought Nancy into that current time. Fast forward to the 1980s-1990s-2000s-plus—and Nancy morphed into a mirror image of the changing juvenile/youth landscape.

Unfortunately, the Nancy of 75+ years after her 1930 debut has not been well received and is analyzed to pieces by contemporary feminists and literary academia sweeping her into the maelstrom confusion of identity politics and sexualized imagery.

Tragic.

The original stories were successfully developed under the insightful pen of Mildred Wirt Benson and the editorial prowess of the Stratemeyer sisters, until their deaths in the early 1980s. The founding genius behind the girl detective gave generations of young girls a strong, confident, and resourceful role model to look up to.

In 2001, twenty years after her identity was revealed, Mildred Wirt Benson was awarded a Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America because of her work on Nancy Drew and contribution to the mystery genre in children’s fiction.

Though Mildred remained true to her contract anonymity behind the pen name of Carolyn Keene, she never lacked for writing under her own name. For 58 years she wrote as a weekly columnist for the Toledo Blade working until just before her death at age 96 in 2002.

In reflecting upon the popularity of Nancy Drew, Mildred once remarked, “I’m glad that I had that much influence on people.”

Her flat rate pay on those original Nancy Drew mysteries may not have been the financial windfall it had the potential to be had she written under her own name and in control of full royalties. However, taking a good paying job for the time in trade for anonymity over so many years found its lasting reward in the knowledge that she created a character and compelling stories that inspired generations of young girls.

Including me. Reading Nancy Drew cemented within my heart a passion for the written word and storytelling as a life calling.

It’s Christmas again. Fifty years after reading my first Nancy Drew mystery, I pay homage to the influence Carolyn Keene—Mildred Wirt Benson—had in my young life with a copy or two of her books tucked under my Vintage Childhood Christmas tree. Upon reflection, I am challenged to consider the humility it took to be the writer of world-famous stories and not be able to take credit for it for decades. In fact, had a court case not required it, Carolyn Keene might still be an author cloaked in mystery.

As a writer, I’ve often had to pen words for the enrichment of another with little to no financial reward and never getting the satisfaction of my own credited byline. There is a place of humility necessary to do so—a challenge to my writer’s ego to live there. But, in the end, the important thing is not who gets credit for the words written, but that the words written credit the life of another with wisdom, beauty, and inspiration.

I’d like my words to have that much influence on people.

Journal Prompt: For 50 years, Mildred kept her identity secret as the writer behind the million-dollar sales of Nancy Drew books. How did humility play a part in Mildred’s writing career? Have you ever written or done something significant but had to defer the credit to someone else? How did you learn humility with contentment in such a situation, and subsequently, grow in depth as a writer?

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

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Literary Women in Histor

Sarah Hale, Heroic History-Maker: The Pen that Perseveres and Persuades

With the November holiday season upon us, turkey tops the menu lists for traditional American fare at family gatherings. The iconic bird remains undivided from thoughts of Thanksgiving Day, even though the original celebrants in 1621, at Plimoth Plantation, enjoyed more fish and venison dishes as opposed to turkey.

Thanksgiving Day on the November calendar—turkey or not—exists these 150+ years thanks to the historic efforts of American author and style-setter, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale. This patriotic Christian and daughter of the revolution lived an amazing life through the course of the 19th century, serving heroically as wife, mother, widow, writer, publisher, opinion shaper, and history maker.

Sarah Josepha Buell entered the world in 1788, born to Captain Gordon Buell, a veteran of the War of Independence, and Martha Whittlesay Buell in Newport, New Hampshire. Sarah’s love of learning and literature sprouted early and blossomed under the homeschool tutelage of her mother and older brother. She reveled in the grand, patriotic stories she heard at her father’s knee, who passed onto her—through the power of story—a love of God, country, liberty, and truth.

Sarah sought out opportunities for self-learning in many disciplines until she earned a teaching certificate. She accepted a position near her home where she gained a reputation as an engaging storyteller.

One day, a lamb followed a student to school and waited outside the schoolhouse for its owner until Sarah dismissed the class. She thought this was charming and wrote a story in verse about it. That little rhyme has been charming generations ever since. Perhaps you remember the sing-song ditty:

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.

 In 1811, Sarah met and married a lawyer named David Hale. Over the next ten years she gave him five children before he died in 1822. She wore black mourning dress for the rest of her life.

As a widow and single mother with strong skills and a resourceful spirit, Sarah used her academic and writing gifts to provide for her family. She first published a collection of poems in 1823. By 1827, she published a novel titled, Northwood: Life North and South, addressing an abolitionist view of slavery.

This so impressed publisher Reverend John Blake, that he invited her to take a full-time staff position for The Ladies Magazine in Boston, the most popular magazine for American women in the 19th century. Eventually, The Ladies Magazine was acquired by the periodical journal Godey’s Ladies Book, with Sarah promoted to editor.

For the next 40 years—until she was 90 years old—Sarah Hale’s editorial pen proved a formidable weight of authority on every-day American life for women and families. Her Christian faith, intelligence, strength of character, and literate lifestyle exacted tremendous influence over fashions and homemaking.

Reflecting a strong biblical worldview, Sarah’s practical, persuasive words wielded a powerful sway on public opinion. If Sarah said it—American women were doing it. She eagerly pursued the advancement of higher education for women writing:

” . . . not that they may usurp the situation or encroach on the prerogatives of man; but that each individual may lend her aid to the intellectual and moral character of those within her sphere.”

Helping women to impact “within her sphere” would eventually result in women—through the work of their pen—making a unifying, permanent mark on the American calendar and tradition during a critical moment in history.

Thanksgiving: The Founder of the Feast

Sarah’s most famous editorials centered on her personal mission to see a national Thanksgiving Day officially declared by the president of the United States. She longed to see a day set aside where every American gathered with their families, on the same day, in praise, with grateful hearts for the many blessings of God bestowed upon a growing nation. Sarah was burdened by the cultural divide between the American North and South. The slavery issue fueled this rift, and unrest settled across the country, stirring the people to prayer. Sarah believed the problem required a return to the heart of America’s founding principles in the spirit of our Pilgrim forefathers, seeking peace and unity in a shared country under God.

Inspired by the well documented thanksgiving feast of 1621, celebrated by English Christian settlers and Native Americans, she began to do more than just address this in editorials. She started write letters hoping to persuade political powers to proclaim a Thanksgiving Day for everyone in the nation.

Sarah’s pen was not a lone ranger. She instigated an army of quills in the hands of American women through an ongoing letter-writing campaign in the course of five presidential administrations over fifteen years. Her crusade for the proclamation of an official American Thanksgiving Day never wavered. Her influence on America’s God-fearing women, praying for God’s peace and national unity under the cloud of unrest between the North and the South, culminated in blanketing the nation’s capital with petitions to the purpose.

Sarah’s faith undergirded a belief in the importance of her quest. She heroically persevered through years of disappointment until she and her legions of petitioners succeeded. At the height of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 3, 1863, including these words of note:

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most-high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy . . . I do therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens . . . it is announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord . . . it has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

It is important to note that prior to the Civil War, each state considered itself its own country. Many issues divided them one from another. Loosely uniting together to defeat a common enemy in the War of Independence some 80 years earlier, 1860s America had reached a threshold of decision on the battlefields of the Civil War. Lincoln, as president, had to be able to unite the nation and bring peace. The path to do so was bloody and traumatic, shifting the nation with rippling effects still felt today.

Time-honored, cultural traditions often prove a powerful stabilizer in unstable times.

For over 150 years, on Thanksgiving Day each November, the stabilizing effect of tradition continues to minister peace and unity within our currently fractured society. American families from sea to shining sea gather around a table of customary foods such as turkey, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. The effect of Sarah Hale’s personal mission, perseverance, and influence upon the average 19th century American woman nationwide is directly responsible for this chapter of American history being written and relevant to us today.

May we consider well the words pouring forth from our pens as women and writers, wielding them, for all the good things and beauty the Lord would use, to invade the self-destructing habits of human nature and nations.

Journal Prompt: What kind of history-maker mark is your pen leaving for future generations? Is your pen’s passion influencing within your sphere for those things that work to unify and bring peace? Who is the sphere of society you seek to influence most? What is your message? Do you have perseverance to continue writing even when if seems you are not having the effect you want to have?

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Learn more about the history of the Plimoth Plantation Thanksgiving story dramatized on The Writer’s Reverie Podcast, Episode 3, by Kathryn Ross, From Leyden to Liberty, including The Ballad of Plimoth Plantation. 

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

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Literary Women in Histor

Beatrix Potter: Filling the Writer’s Nest with Tangible Inspiration

This is the tale of a tail—a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.

Beatrix Potter, 1903

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

There’s something cleansing about the opening line of a Beatrix Potter storybook. I can almost hear her reading it in a sing-song voice, with just a touch of playfulness and sufficient drama to embolden the cautionary lesson at the climax of each tale. The solid, moral footing of her stories drawn from her keen, life-long observation of the flora and fauna in the Lake District of England, grounds whimsy in a swath of reality. I recommend hoarding a nest full of her nutritious tales for children of all ages, living in any era, as part of a Family Literary Lifestyle.

Miss Potter’s legacy of little animals going about the daily chores of farm and village life, wearing clothing and sipping tea in blissful existence next to humans, developed from the seed of her childhood. Growing up in a well-to-do home in London, her Victorian parents, as was the fashion of the day, had little interaction with Beatrix and her brother, Bertram, in their early years. On occasion, Beatrix’s father, connected with some of the trendy artists of the late 1800s, took her with him to art galleries and museums, feeding her desire to develop her own artistic skills.

Sketches from her childhood journals reveal a natural talent, blossoming with many hours of solitude in her third-floor nursery to perfect precise lines and watercolor techniques. When living in London, Beatrix completed her academic assignments under the tutelage of a nurse, and then governess. They, along with the servants in the house—cook and butler—encouraged her fascination with life in the garden. Though Beatrix might be tasked with finishing a still life drawing for a lesson, her favorite art subjects scampered, scurried, and skittered about on four legs between bushes, along fences, and up tree trunks out of doors.

In the late spring each year, the family moved to a fine summer home in the Lake District area until early fall when they returned for “the season” to London. In the glories of the English countryside, Beatrix roamed meadows and woodlands searching out all manner of plants and creatures in their burrows. She kept a journal of their habits and personality sketches, as well as detailed drawings of them in varied poses and settings. Then, of course, she’d name them. And some she’d adopt, making for quite a menagerie of cages and wicker boxes in her rooms.

Her furry roommates became famous as lead characters in her stories including Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Hunca Munca mouse, and more—like Squirrel Nutkin.

I usually like to bring out all my Beatrix Potter collection of books and figurines for springtime décor. But in the fall, I always display The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, one of my favorites. I love the Autumn shades of reds, golds, and browns in the art, and how delightfully she captures the seasonal escapades of squirrels, gathering nuts and hoarding them to feed off of through the winter under the lordly gaze of Old Brown, the owl.

My front and back gardens are full of squirrels at present, continuing in the ritual, unmoved by world changes over the last 100 years. The constancy of their lifestyle acts as a compass for me, grounding me in how I see life and cherish what matters. Their quirk-some personalities delight as much as they chide my heart, as I see myself in some of their habits. Beatrix might have mused in the same way, studying her squirrel friends. She used her observations to great success in speaking bold commentary on the human heart through country landscapes and the antics of the creatures who live there.

One of the things that I believe fed her tales and ability to pepper her character sketches with engaging detail, was the fact that she surrounded her world—be it her room, gardens, or hours in a meadow—with tangible inspiration. She lived among physical displays of the subjects in her art and writing. Squirrels and owls—she knew them intimately because she had them close at hand, living as pets in her room, to observe and manifest in The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin.

Tangible inspiration.

I regularly make use of this writing technique—though not in the collecting of small animals from the wild. I’m a visual learner and creator. I can’t write in a sparsely appointed room because I’m constantly distracted by bare walls, thinking what I might want to put there to fill the space. This translates to my writing life in the habit of surrounding myself with physical objects to inspire whatever it is I’m writing about.

For instance, some years ago I ran a theatrical group and regularly wrote and produced plays for performance. I’d spend a year collecting props and costumes, slowly positioning them in my living room. Displayed for me in daily view, I meditated on the story they might help me tell, and how I might use them in the script. Keeping objects visually before me fed inspiration within and allowed my brain to drift to the land of “What If,” allowing imagination full sway, until words bubbled forth.

As both illustrator and writer, Beatrix Potter’s work testifies to this visual learning style technique, further inspiring me as a writer and storyteller. In fact, when I speak, I rarely do so behind a simple podium. There must be a stage and setting. Props and tangible visuals. I rely more on these items surrounding me on a platform than I do on written notes. And I, like Beatrix, prove that a picture—tangible inspiration—is worth a thousand words. The writer just needs to mine those words. Then click publish.

 Journal Prompt: How do you surround yourself with inspiration to write? Think about a time when a physical object or tangible inspiration was the seedbed and soil to your written work.

Bonus Writing Exercise: Choose a smattering of objects unrelated to each other and arrange them in a display. Study them and begin to cast them as characters, setting, and conflict in a short story of your own. How does writing with physical objects as your inspiration make a difference to how your story unfolds?

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BIO

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

 

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Literary Women in Histor

Laura Ingalls Wilder: Wisdom for Today by Kathryn Ross

In last month’s post, I shared about the disturbing trend of imposing modern standards to classic works of literature and the arts, with the recent stripping of Laura Ingalls Wilder from the literary award named for her in the 1950s by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). She’s been accused of racism for scant references in her books to minorities as understood by her as a child. Read more details on this here.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books, lived through great change in America. In fact, she experienced first-hand the seismic shifts in the nation caused by the Civil War, the end of slavery, the Industrial Revolution, Westward Expansion, the automobile, the airplane, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and even Elvis Presley. When she passed in 1957, just four days after her 90th birthday, her humble roots and written accounts of childhood and coming of age during the settling of the West, had catapulted her to world-wide fame as an icon of traditional American values and imagery.

But through the misguided, officious, agenda-driven move of the ALSC, the accuracy of Mrs. Wilder and her character has been called into question. This does not bode well for all writers of the past—their written accounts of life, living, and worldview in historical narratives drawn from the experience of their time. The threat that such may be divested of their veracity and precision as historical narratives to placate contemporary political correctness is abominable. This extends to modern authors of historical fiction, too, who may feel they are forced to present an historical time period and the worldviews of historical characters through a manipulated 21st century PC lens.

Authors and artists must be judged by their whole body of work. It is a shame the ALSC, who should know better, did not afford Mrs. Wilder that courtesy. As Christian writers today, we have stories to tell and a message to convey that may not be popular in a worldly sense. We may find ourselves judged harshly for simply telling the truth.

How would you respond if such a thing happened to you?

In wondering how Laura Ingalls Wilder might respond were she here to defend herself and her writing, she might take her own advice from this gem of a quote:

The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.

Be honest and truthful—Write accurate details when sharing your own story, no matter how messy or unpopular. Historical fiction must ring true to the time and setting, too. Don’t put words, actions, or perspectives within your characters that may be fashionable today but wouldn’t be accurate in the era within which you’re writing.

Make the most of what you have—Mrs. Wilder never envisioned herself as a great writer. She was a farmer’s wife and grew into writing poetry and on farm topics as a hobby for a local periodical. The Little House books started as a memoir she wrote in her 60s in longhand on lined paper. Her daughter Rose, a gifted author and journalist, acted as a gatekeeper into the publishing world and collaborator on the books typing them up and helping in the editing process. Laura made the most of her life’s story, bringing historical recall of details from a time long past to the table, and capitalized on filling a need for entertaining and educational reading material for children in the turbulent days of the mid-20th century.

Be happy with simple pleasures—Living and working through the day to day chores on her beloved farm with her husband, Almanzo, enjoying friends and family, and supporting the Methodist church life where she worshipped made up the lion share of Mrs. Wilder’s life until she began writing the books. Even then, there was always time to take in the beauties of Creation and maintain the simple life and seasonal routines of a farmer’s wife. Simple pleasures are a tonic to worldly cares.

Have courage when things go wrong—In addition to the high times of joyful living, Laura’s books give detailed accounts of perilous days when food was scarce, travel arduous, work hard to find, loved ones lost, great danger, and perceived injustices. Even so, the character of the American pioneer instilled itself deep within her makeup from childhood. Resilience, courage, and perseverance led the way. When Laura’s first book, Little House in the Big Woods, was published in 1932 during the Depression, it encouraged Americans through a season of hardship and sacrifice. So, too, as she continued to write her story through the World War II years in the 1940s, her books reminded America of their liberties and pride in their country and a history worthy to defend and protect in dangerous times.

 Journal Prompt: Are you bold enough to write from a foundation of accurate truth in its historical setting even though it may be perceived as unacceptable for one reason or another in the current time? How can you steel yourself to be a bold, fearless writer of truth, making the most of what you have with a happy heart undergirded with courage?

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Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

 

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Literary Women in Histor

Laura Ingalls Wilder: Truth for the Time

Have you heard the latest outrage in the world of books and publishing?

Beloved children’s author, Laura Ingalls Wilder—turns out she’s something of a racist. Strange but true. The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has deemed it to be so, in keeping with the current popular mantra that pretty much everyone these days is racist if they hold fast to traditional American values.

 Who knew!

The book award that the ALSC created over 60 years ago bearing Mrs. Wilder’s name no longer can because a scant handful of references in her Little House books have been tagged as racist towards certain minorities she came in contact with as a little girl in the 1880s.

Formerly hailed as a great classic of children’s literature, celebrating faith, family, hard work, perseverance, and American patriotism, parents are being warned against them. Her name is blackened. The award is stripped from her. And all because she told the truth as she experienced it. She wrote an historical fiction memoir based upon firsthand accounts of a major part of American history from the perspective of a child living through it. Why is that wrong?

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association wonders about that, too.

Statement from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association—Office of the Director:

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association wishes to voice its disappointment in the recent action of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). Many believe that Mrs. Wilder’s famous “Little House” books are American treasures and she should be honored as their author.

Mrs. Wilder believed her books to be historically accurate and reflect American life during the Western Movement. However difficult it may be to agree with social mores within these years, the fact remains that was a different time and what was accepted then would not be today. Mrs. Wilder was writing a historical account of her childhood to inform today’s children how proud they may be in their heritage and their nation.

Hmmm. Being proud of one’s heritage and nation. Not real popular these days in some media streams. What crazy times we live in where being proud of our heritage and nation is controversial.

But, true to the time in which she lived, Laura referred to Native Americans as Indians. Most historical fiction books of the time do. Even the Indians called themselves Indians. There is also some concern over her unfiltered childlike reaction at seeing a black person for the first time. Not quite the way we’re supposed to be speaking these days.

And therein lies the problem.

Do you write historical fiction? Do you write personal memoir or autobiography? Are you true to the time you are writing about? Or, do you fear negative repercussions if you don’t manipulate historical norms to fit contemporary trends in thought, word, and deed?

I’ve read all nine of the Little House books and loved every one. Mrs. Wilder painted sticky images in my mind of bygone times with precise details. Even though it has been many years since reading them, there are passages that left an impression so deep, I can still recall them, fascinated at how my imagination stirred with a desire to learn more about history.

I enjoyed teaching Little House in the Big Woods to a homeschool group a few years ago, leading young hearts and minds through some favorite passages: the maple syrup chapter, Pa’s bear story, Mary’s birthday, and the fact that Laura could name every tree and plant that grew in and around her home as a very little child, as though they were dear friends. What a wondrous childhood filled with worthy life lessons and experiences modern children rarely enjoy amid all the hyper distractions of today.

Times have changed. I am heartily sorry that those seeking to re-write history have chosen such a literary icon as Laura Ingalls Wilder to pick on.

In the mid-20th century, and for decades later, librarians lauded the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder for her honest storytelling of an American family living through the highs and lows of a defining moment in our national history, unfiltered by a political agenda. Not so much anymore. These days, one candid remark on social media can cost a person their livelihood and open their life to unforgiving abuse. It is a toxic environment for writers seeking to speak truth.

As Christians, publishing an unpopular message or controversial fictional story in an historical setting, we should not allow ourselves to be bullied into writing politically correct words that are untrue to ourselves and history. The Word of God should be the only arbiter of truth and the plumbline standard for our words. Some may take offense. Some may twist our meaning and motivation out of proportion, accusing us of unjustified things. If so, we are in good company. With the likes of Jesus.

And our own Laura Ingalls Wilder, it would seem.

Next month, I continue musing on this topic and share some words of wisdom from Laura’s pen to encourage the Christian writer of today.

 Journal Prompt: How true to yourself are you when writing in your journal? Is it messy? Is it whitewashed? In your historical fiction, are you bullied by contemporary politically correct culture that often skews the lens through which you experienced something in order to satisfy a trendy group-think? In essence, re-writing history? Where have you seen this type of manipulation in historical fiction? In memoir? In some contemporary biblical narratives?

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Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. In addition, she shepherds writers through the steps book development and production. Her passion to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, produces readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

Categories
Literary Women in Histor

Louisa May Alcott: A Secret Place to Meet the Muse

The nineteenth century exploded with women writers expressing themselves in abandon through story and essay. Serious writers. Sensationalistic writers. Letter writers. Diarists and poets. The rise of the middle class in both America and England meant more women were educated, and well-read, writing for pleasure, purpose, and purse strings.

Louisa May Alcott wrote on all these accounts.

Best known as the author of the classic, Little Women, Louisa infused herself intimately into the character of Jo, one of four sisters in a story loosely based on her own growing and coming of age years. Jo embodied the eager young artist Louisa saw herself to be. Not only did Jo possess an unbridled imagination, but a drive and determination to leave her mark on the world in an age when the acts of men led the charge through history.

I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle—something heroic, or wonderful—that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead. I don’t know what, but I’m on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all, some day. I think I shall write books and get rich and famous; that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream.
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

In Louisa’s lifetime, 1832-1888, women tended to be relegated to supporting roles. Though, in reality, no moment in history ever materialized apart from the equal participation of both sexes. Men may have been the driving force in action, but apart from the powerful influence of women, history is incomplete.

Still, Miss Alcott lived through a time where she felt keenly the second-class nature of women as power brokers on the world stage. She was heavily influenced by the transcendentalist movement, her father being a strong proponent and teacher within the philosophy, hobnobbing with the likes of Emerson and Thoreau. Mr. Alcott was a tough taskmaster, with strong opinions on the rearing of children, often putting him at odds with his wife and daughters. One can only imagine how such a fierce mindset clashed with the artistically sensitive and creative mind of Louisa. It also didn’t help that his inability to maintain steady work and income forced the family to move 22 times in a 30-year period. From town to city to apartment to rented bungalows, a routine of constant uprooting and new surroundings provided a challenge for Louisa’s creative spirit.

Though she struggled in her relationship with a stern father, her mother’s sensitivity became a shield and comfort to her development as a writer. At the age of fourteen, she records in her journal:

March 1846—I have at last got the little room I have wanted so long and am very happy about it. It does me good to be alone, and Mother has made it very pretty and neat for me. My work-basket and desk are by the window, and my closet is full of dried herbs that smell very nice. The door that opens into the garden will be very pretty in summer, and I can run off to the woods when I like. 

Finding a place to meet her muse in her own room fed her creativity and encouraged the gift within. Soon, the family would move again. And again. And again. Making the most of her situation in each move, Louisa’s focus sharpened, and her ambition took root. Submitting books and periodicals for publication, she earned an income to assist the family.

In 1868 she published Little Women, parts one and two, followed later by Jo’s Boys. One of my favorite parts of the book were the scenes in the attic room where Jo would go to meet her muse. There, drawings peppered the walls, costumes lay about, scattered here and there with random props necessary to playacting. Guests came to the attic by invitation only—her sisters being regular visitors and willing participants in Jo’s theatricals. But always there must be time to feed her imagination with solitary reading, and then pour out her musings on reams of paper.

Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace.
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

When the writing fit came on, she gave herself up to it with entire abandon, and led a blissful life, unconscious of want, care, or bad weather, while she sat safe and happy in an imaginary world, full of friends almost as real and dear to her as any in the flesh.
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Pulling apart her 1846 journal entry above, regarding the room her mother made for her—a creative habitation, the power of place, the secret place to meet her muse—I discovered some universal truths that all writers can glean from those few lines as we, too, must make our own place to meet our muse and “fall into a vortex” :

I have at last got the little room I have wanted so long—Sometimes, finding the perfect place of escape to feed your imagination and allow creative juices a free flow requires patience. Seasons of snatching snippets of time in shared spaces challenge every writer. As a young mother, my writing life shared space and time with toddlers, toys, and the dining room table. Moving eighteen times in twenty years as a Navy wife, I didn’t always have the luxury of a writing space. Carving out the power of place in the corner of the living room or the side of my bed sufficed until the day I could rejoice in my “little room” that “I have wanted so long.” Be patient. Keep writing. Always hope.

It does me good to be alone—No writer can truly grow to their full potential apart from protracted times of aloneness. No writer seeking space and time to be alone is ever lonely. In the alone space, God’s presence embraces the eager listener. Meeting with the Divine Muse to fulfill your calling of writer and storyteller in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, requires the deliberate act of pulling aside to be alone. With God. With your thoughts. With the elements of the story you want to tell laid before you without interruption or competition. Writers thrive in the alone place.

Mother has made it very pretty and neat for me—Visual aesthetics feed the creative muse. Taste matters, though. Minimalists prefer stoic, simple settings with little clutter. But, some artists thrive in the chaos of a studio overflowing with the tools of their craft, souvenirs, and favorite things. For me, I find blank walls distracting. My thoughts turn to the sort of wall grouping that would best fill the space. I prefer to saturate my creative spaces with the material objects that inspire me or relate to the project I may currently be working on. Books permeate and inform my power of place. Artfully arranged framed prints, antiques, and select collectibles create a comforting environment. At peace in my place, ideas root, sprout, bud, and blossom in turn. Whether you prefer minimal or abundant eclectic arrangements, be sure they stimulate your eye as “pretty and neat.”

My work-basket and desk are by the window—Where do you sit when you write, think, pray? Louisa tucked herself by the window. Her eyes could easily take in the glories of God’s Creation outside while natural light and fresh air streamed through the paned portal. I have regular access to a little cottage by a lake near my home. It’s a wonderful place to escape to for prayer, study, and reflective thinking. I sit inside by a window overlooking the lush foliage and sparkling water in a tiny shaded inlet. The breeze blowing through the house refreshes me more than when I sit on the deck, hunkered down in a comfortable leather sofa, my lemon water, journal, and books within easy reach on a table next to me.

My closet is full of dried herbs that smell very nice—The five senses are gateways of information and inspiration. The sense of smell has the power to transport the mind to a related time and place where the scent was first experienced. There’s an Italian deli in my town that comforts me just to walk in the door, because it smells like my grandmother’s kitchen of cheese, spices, and tomatoes. It’s a scent I connect to my childhood, and sumptuous family dinners on Sunday afternoons—long ago. The dried herbs in Louisa’s closet scented her small room with relaxing and medicinal aromas, powerfully ministering to her mind and imagination. Essential oils and diffusers, readily available today, create a fragrant environment in your secret space to either relax or stimulate mind and imagination.

The door that opens into the garden will be very pretty in summer—Louisa enjoyed the extension of her room into the garden ripe with flowers. A morning of labor in longhand on a story might tire wrist and mind. But a languid stroll around the flower beds in summer, located on the other side of the door to her room, heals and inspires. Allowing the muse of birdsong to captivate the ear, the playful antics of garden rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels delight the eyes, and the silky-smooth touch of petals and leaves against the fingers while cutting a basket of stems for a vase, ministers healing to a weary writer, and renews the mind to return with fresh words flowing from the pen. Or in our day—on a laptop.  

I can run off to the woods when I like—This is the romantic in Louisa. The romantic in me, too. Running carefree into the woods where all manner of inspiration lies. I spent my childhood playing and exploring in the woods around our home. As an adult, I wrote some of my best work within hours of escaping into woods, meadows, and even one glorious day, in the ruins of an abandoned dairy farm. I published some of those works in a collection designed for journal enthusiasts titled, Fragrant Fields: Poetic Reflections for Journaling.  Many writers have intimate stories of secreting away into pockets of Creation, emerging from their retreat with fresh vision. Writer’s block is easily cured by such an adventure.

Currently, I’m in the process of re-arranging my secret place to meet my muse—my office and writing space with Miss Alcott’s checklist at the ready.

Journal Prompt: Where do you meet your writing muse? Do you have a secret place to escape to where you connect with your creative gift? How important is prayer and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to your writing life? How important is the physical surroundings of your writing retreat? How does your preferred physical setting bring you comfort and inspiration?

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Kathryn Ross

Writer, Inspirational Speaker, Literacy Enrichment Artist
Celebrating the Art of Reading ~ Developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle:
Reading Together, Learning Together, Loving Together

She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

“Be blessed and be a blessing!”

Categories
Literary Women in Histor

Beatrix Potter: When Trials Pave a Way to Destiny by Kathryn Ross

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you. Mine took me here, where I belong.
― Beatrix Potter

As a child, Beatrix Potter often wondered where she belonged. It would be many years and more than her fair share of trials before her life’s path brought her to where she belonged.

In keeping with the child rearing trends of the upwardly mobile classes in Victorian England, Beatrix’s parents entertained limited interaction with their children until they came of a civilized age. A nurse was tasked with the daily care of Beatrix and her younger brother, Bertram. In her teen years a governess appointed to mold the girl Beatrix into a lady became her companion, while Bertram went off to boarding school in the elementary years, to begin his grooming for the business world.

On any given evening, as a child, Beatrix would sit forlorn in the third-floor nursery of her family’s London townhouse. Nurse delivered dinner. Beatrix ate alone, as usual. After dinner, Beatrix would bathe and dress for bed before saying “goodnight” to Mr. and Mrs. Potter in the drawing room. Perhaps Mother would inquire about her studies under the tutelage of Nurse. The Potters did not approve of sending their daughter to school. It was inappropriate within their social circles. Father might ask if she sketched anything new that day. She would answer their questions with formal politeness, curtsy, and retire to bed. The next day would be much the same, providing little society other than interaction with the servants.

And Peter and Benjamin, of course.

They were rabbits, you know. Young Beatrix kept a virtual zoo of animals in her room—from mice to bats to the beloved pet rabbits who eventually became the inspiration for characters in her series of popular children’s stories. As an adult, these little books made her famous, a household name, and a woman of independent means by 1906.

But until her mid-30s, Beatrix was a woman of her age, living through a time of limited formal educational opportunities for women in all spheres of society. The upper classes were especially protective of daughters whose greatest aspiration was training to marry well and run a household commensurate with her husband’s social profile. However, the Potters were not eager to see their daughter marry once she came of age. Beatrix had become far too important to the smooth running of their household in the wake of an unending stream of chronic maladies. They had no desire to see their daughter live independent of them.

The trials of Beatrix’s repressive, stoic early years and early adulthood, raised in this controlling Victorian parenting regime, might have produced a bitter, unimaginative, rebellious woman. Certainly, by today’s standards, some might go so far as to accuse the Potters of child abuse and neglect.

But Beatrix used what freedoms she did have to escape and explore the glories of the flora and fauna—both in her own backyard, and for three months each year, the country estate grounds where the family took their summers. With an unlimited supply of writing and drawing instruments, Beatrix kept a daily journal of thoughts and observations on her excursions and the daily lives of all her pets. She filled pages with companion pencil and watercolor sketches of garden and wildlife. Her superior attention to detail regarding the flora, was countered with a whimsical capturing of animal life—suiting them up well in gaiters, waistcoats, aprons, and bonnets. Interacting with God’s creation cultivated her imagination, bringing balance to her otherwise dull lifestyle.

She could little imagine, though, how this personal passion and retreat in nature as a child would one day feed the childhood literary thirsts of millions around the world. Beatrix bore the prison of her daily routines with a quiet resolve to find a personal happy place to offset her responsibilities to her parents. In that place of ofttimes trial, a world of story, in word and illustration, birthed that captivated the imaginations of generations.

Beatrix Potter’s whimsical story world of talking animals, toys, and nursery rhymes, set in restful English country villages, remain a staple in children’s literature over a hundred years after they were inked. In her lifetime, she came to possess a substantial amount of farmland real estate in the Lake District of England from her earnings, purchasing dozens of ancient farms and woodland acreage. She rescued the land from corporate development that would have displaced the people and forever destroy the restful, idyllic landscape of the English countryside with industrial sprawl.

Upon her death in 1943, these preserved acres of land became the foundation of conservation in the National Trust, safeguarding their historical value, simple beauty, environmental wildlife, and the farm and village culture of the people whose families had lived there for centuries. In addition, she contributed to scientific journals with detailed illustrations for fungus studies, drawn from nature, and in her later years became a notable sheep farmer.

That’s quite a legacy for such a sheltered little Victorian girl. But that repressive soil fertilized her discovery of the only trail available to her from childhood. Trial in her life became a pathway guiding her to her ultimate destiny. Beatrix’s journals and letters leave hints as to how she chose to navigate her life to fulfill her place in the world with contentment, humility, and grace:

  • I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.

Write. Draw. With passion and resolve. Allow the cathartic nature of creativity to heal through your trials.

  • Thank goodness my education was neglected . . .Thank goodness I was never sent top school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

Expand the liberating place of self-learning in your life. Own your education. Discover the world around you through self-driven study, observation, critical thought, and experiment to develop original ideas.

  • Everything was romantic in my imagination. The woods were peopled by the mysterious good folk. The Lords and Ladies of the last century walked with me along the overgrown paths and picked the old-fashioned flowers among the box and rose hedges of the garden.

Cultivate your imagination regarding romantic ideals—perfect models of life, principles, and moral values that celebrate peace, goodness, and beauty (Philippians 4:8). Such things, presented whimsically in Miss Potter style, allow a place of escape for mind and heart in troublesome seasons. It also satisfies, to an extent, the desire to see paradigm ideals manifest in a story of substance. The Christian fiction writer understands this to be the seedbed of a story-world—creating place where the protagonist’s best outcomes might be realized, and readers might find something noble to ponder and relate to in their own lives.

  • Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.
    Live a self-disciplined life knowing that, no matter what, all things work together for good and trials can become the trails that lead you onto God’s purposes for your life.

What many people don’t know is that The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the classic that started it all, was actually a little story Beatrix wrote in a letter to the sick child of her former governess with whom she remained close. It was designed to cheer the little invalid and his siblings with a handful of illustrations and the familiar text we all remember of a very naughty rabbit who squeezes under the gate into Mr. MacGregor’s garden in clear defiance of his mother’s instructions. Encouragement to publish the work moved her to seek out a publisher, only to be turned away multiple times. She was a woman, after all. No matter, she would self-publish!

With some savings of her own, she financed the publication of 500 copies of the book with exact specifications through the Frederick Warne Company—the same company that still holds all the rights to Miss Potter’s work today. It sold out of the bookstore where it was placed in short order, smoothing the pathway for Beatrix to take her place as a shining star in children’s literature and illustration. Her legacy. Her destiny. Precisely where she belonged.

Journal Prompt: Make a list of painful periods in your life when you felt repressed or limited due to circumstances. Write down the life lesson you learned living through each season of trial. How have difficult times in your life informed your writing? How did a personal trial, setback, or disappointment become a pathway to greater things in your life? How have you used negative experiences to add dimension to plot or characters in your stories? Are you where you belong? Journal your answers.

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Recommended Reading: Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, by Linda Lear, © 2016 St. Martin’s Griffin

 Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

Categories
Literary Women in Histor

Keen Eyes, Core Values, and Jane Austen’s Pen by Kathryn Ross

It is only a novel . . . or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.

Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen, not yet twenty years of age in the late 18th century, penned the novel, Northanger Abbey. The story explored how easily a young mind can be filled with nonsense and ignoble values through the reading of sensationalistic novels. Void of true substance and moral life values, books and stories like this have always been with us. Jane read them—pop literature—and learned early the emptiness of such works. Northanger Abbey’s heroine, Catherine Moreland, walks out in fiction the non-fiction life lessons Jane discovered in her youth regarding the power and value of literature in forming the mind and character.

Jane’s keen eye to identify the noble and ridiculous in her sphere of society and the culture of her day was a foundational asset to her writing life, and the ultimate contribution she made to classic literature. How was she groomed to hold this esteemed place among women writers in the world of Western prose?

Born in 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire in the English countryside, her lively Christian home of six brothers and one older sister filled her youth with creative stimulation and activity. Informed by academic and biblical faith habits, honed under the tutelage of her father, the parish rector of Steventon and headmaster of a boys school, her gifts for clever insight, wit, and writing were enjoyed and encouraged by her family. Many a night found them gathered to hear her read from one of her essays or short stories, sparking approving laughter and engaging conversation.

Eventually, with the aid of her older brother Henry, her novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published under an anonymous byline to national acclaim. Pride and Prejudice followed, surpassing S&S as her most famous work.

In her short life, Jane left six complete novels and was eleven chapters into her final work at the time of her death at age 42 in 1817. Modern doctors, reviewing the scant clues in her letters and journals detailing the symptoms of her debilitating illness have pointed to Addison’s disease as the culprit. Even so, the legacy of her small body of work to contemporary women writers is easy to distill into a handful of tips. The above quote from Northanger Abbey lays the foundation of her work and best practices for writers today:

  • Greatest Powers of the Mind Displayed: Write intelligent, truthful words, telling stories well layered in depth and substance.
  • Thorough Knowledge of Human Nature: Study the underlying truth in people, the inward workings of the human heart, and the effects and consequences of choices in life.
  • Happiest Delineation of Its [human nature] Varieties: Celebrate the most noble core values in humanity that are good, true, and worthy to be praised and imitated.
  • Liveliest Effusions of Wit and Humor: Use winsome words to craft entertaining scenes and engaging characters that compellingly illustrate truth.
  • Best-Chosen Language: Employ proper technical language skills with a rich vocabulary and word usage.

This tip list was employed in every one of Jane’s classic novels, which also included Emma, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. Each one gave us a host of memorable, complex characters, timeless storylines involving family relationships and the quest for true love, and idyllic country settings providing an escape and refreshment to mind and heart.

But the most captivating aspect of Jane’s writing for me as a reader and writer, is her ability to present the working out of biblical truth and principles within real life scenes, characters, and plot elements. Without the need to preach, Jane’s works teach God’s Word in her illustrations of life and living within the constraints of her era and society. When I read an Austen novel, I easily recognize Scriptures coming to life through the life of the story. Sticky stories—that entertain and educate me in the way of truth.

 It is one of life’s great pleasures to finish a book and feel the satisfaction of not only having read a well-crafted story, but of learning a valuable life lesson about God and human nature.

Steffany Woolsey
A Jane Austen Devotional

 Imagine my delight when I came into possession of A Jane Austen Devotional, by Steffany Woolsey. Ms. Woolsey saw in Jane’s work what had always inspired me, both as a Christian and a writer: Jane Austen’s Christian faith core values were the compass steering her stories and character development.

To that end, there are a host of examples to be gleaned from Jane’s novels that, when pondered, clearly illustrate biblical truth. Woolsey discusses this in the Introduction to her devotional:

Austen’s writing is newly illuminated when held up to Scripture. In probing her novels for biblical insights on living and loving, we are reminded of humanity’s innate desire for relationship with the Creator. Through Austen’s varied and colorful characters, we learn not only about true love but meaningful character. We strive for the humility, wisdom, wit, and grace of a Jane Austen protagonist while learning to recognize the superficial vanity and worldliness of so many other characters who concern themselves only with their own gain.

 Illustrations of the biblical principles of generosity, unconditional love, vanity, faithfulness appearing religious, kindness, contentment, endurance, self-control, setting emotional boundaries, disciplining children, hope in God, servanthood, wise counsel, jealousy, pure motives, tongue taming, noble actions, gossip, forgiveness, poor judgement, teachable spirit, repentance, and more—over a hundred in total—take the reader of this devotional to deeper places within familiar novels. Each devotional includes a theme title, Scripture, excerpt from one of the novels, and a short essay relating them.

Currently, reading comprehension levels in America are at an all-time low because the threshold for reading and literature is, I believe, set low. Literacy is more than just reading words and sentences. Literacy is being able to think critically about what has been read and relate it to the world around you. Reading deep requires approaching each book like a detective seeking clues to discover the hidden substance tucked between the lines, scenes, characters, and plot layers. As I set out upon the journey with the protagonist of a story, I want to grow with them. I want the time I invest in a story to move me closer to truth. God’s truth comprehended.

Jane Austen intuitively wrote her stories layered with eternal truths regarding the human heart. Her books aren’t listed in bookstores on the Christian fiction shelves. She didn’t write Christian fiction, manipulating a storyline to teach some sort of Bible lesson. She just wrote true to the biblical worldview within which she was raised, within the historical time, society, and culture she lived.

When we write what’s true to our core values, employing the highest levels of literary skill and storytelling prowess, like Jane Austen, our tales become pregnant with the potential of a timeless classic.

Explore the following journal prompts to discern the compass settings of your core values to better inform your writing:

Journal Prompt: What is the most important underlying principle that informs your thinking and writing—your worldview? List some of the core values in life that are most important to you. What kind of themes do these core values suggest for possible storytelling? How does keenly observing the inner and outer workings of the human heart affect your ability to create believable characters? If something is true—does that mean it is good? Why or why not? How does writing truth, be it good or evil, persuade the mind of others? What is the measure of truth, and judge of good and evil? Why is it necessary to have both represented in a story? How can you layer core value truths within a story using the tools of plot, setting, and characters?

TWEET: [bctt tweet=”#JaneAusten had a secret to writing timeless tales! How core values separate the chaff from the wheat in crafting stories that stick. ” username=”@A3Authors @misskathypwp”]

TWEET:[bctt tweet=”#Women Writers in Life and Letters—Keen Eyes, Core Values, and Jane Austen’s Pen ” username=”@A3Authors @misskathypwp”]

Reference: A Jane Austen Devotional, by Steffany Woolsey, © 2012 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Nashville, Tennessee, ARR

 

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

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Literary Women in Histor

The Power of Place by Kathryn Ross

“… a hermitage, which is about an acre of ground—an island, planted with all variety of trees, shrubs and flowers that will grow in this country, abundance of little winding walks, differently embellished with little seats and banks; in the midst is placed a hermit’s cell, made of the roots of trees, the floor is paved with pebbles, there is a couch made of matting, and little wooden stools, a table with a manuscript on it, a pair of spectacles, a leathern bottle; and hung up in different parts, an hourglass, a weatherglass and several mathematical instruments, a shelf of books, another of wood platters and bowls, another of earthen ones, in short everything that you might imagine necessary for a recluse.”

Mary Delany, Artist and Bluestocking, 1748

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Literary Women in Histor

Women Bluestockings by Kathryn Ross

When Benjamin Stillingfleet rejected the norms of 18th century polite society, for the graver pursuits of learning and literature—and the company of like minds for enlightened conversation—his fortunes dramatically altered. No more would he be invited to grand affairs requiring the fashionable formality of black stockings. His daily-wear blue stockings must suffice.

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Literary Women in Histor

Writing the Vision – by Kathryn Ross

 

Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.

Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV

 For I am not instructed in the vision to write as the learned write, and the words in the vision are not as words sounding from a human mouth, but as flashing flame and as a cloud moving in clear air.

Hildegard of Bingen

Letter to Guilbert Gembloux

Henry Osborne Taylor translation

Most writers can attest to some level of visionary experience in the crafting of a novel or the development of a writing project. It might be called inspiration. Modern women writers follow up their vision with the scholarship of research to the purpose, and Christian women dare not venture to put pen to paper apart from prayer.

But medieval women writers of devotional literature possessed precious little ability for scholarly research. They relied chiefly on prayer and a passionate love of God according to whatever religious teaching they had been allowed by the church. The writing lives of medieval women remained relegated to the noble-born classes and the convent, but their level of education was not level with the men of the time. Women submitted to the authority of men in every sphere of living. Though they felt the deficit, few chaffed at the misapplied subjugation of women as second-class citizens. The emancipation of women and balanced interpretation of biblical principles on the subject have come a long way in the last millennium. Even so, the controversial topic remans a hotly debated.

True in both contemporary and medieval times, writing and speaking from a place of authority is necessary. Latin, the language of the church and scholarship in the 12th century, was enjoyed by men as a complete education in literacy, be they noblemen or clergy. But, not so with women, who might understand Latin, but not be able to speak or write in it. Those who possessed even more limited literacy skills dictated their works to scribes. Women were acutely aware of their limitations in authority, but due to the rapt nature of their visions, meditations, and prayer life, they were compelled to write in the authority of the vision. They used whatever abilities they had to the fullest obeying their call to write His vision.

The ascetic women of the medieval age lived a monastic life, wholly devoted to God, in convents free of the cares of home and family. The intensity of their works became a force of change in their own soul and spirit, transforming them into selfless servants seeking the ways and means to help the afflicted in their communities. The ultimate purpose of the vision was to change their lives, so they might be agents of change in the lives of others.

The middle ages leave a plethora of devotional writings by Christian women, autobiographical in nature, that are memoirs of intense moments experienced in the secret place of prayer and meditation. These visionaries and mystics, though their words may give the biblically astute modern reader pause, must be judged by the era in which they lived and the language they were able to fully experience in a living relationship with God.

Visions and dialogue between God and man are regularly recorded in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. So, too, in the subsequent generations of Christian writers over the past 2000 years. This was the major element in the written works of medieval women:

The most obvious single narrative unit of [medieval] women’s writing is the retelling of a vision, and that vision has two mnemonic structural elements: visual iconography and dialogue. Visions are creative acts, and they seem to have been experienced by medieval women as direct seeing and hearing, not as reading. To have a vision was more like seeing a film than it was like writing or reading. Visions were images, texts, and glosses on a woman’s spiritual growth; there spiritual insights found visible form, which could be further explored and meditated on.

Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff

Medieval Women’s Visionary Literature

There is something striking in the words and life experiences left to us by visionary medieval women writers. Those—male or female—seeking greater vision as a 21st century writer might want to take note and be encouraged:

  • If God has called you to write, you will hear Him plainly—therein is your authority.
  • Seek God in prayer to His purposes in calling you to write, and meditate on the vision He has placed in your heart and mind until it is fully grown, and you are transformed.
  • Do not allow your lack of skill to impede your obedience to write.
  • Use whatever tools are available to follow through on your call to write your vision, be it opportunities for higher education, mentors, writers conferences, online tutorials, and all the extensive research at your fingertips on the internet or in the stacks at the library. We have more to accomplish the task of writing today than our ancient sisters.

Journal Prompt: Are you a visionary writer? Compare the meanings of vision and inspiration—where do they come from? How do you experience the inspiration to write? Do you see pictures? Do you hear words or phrases? Is there a recurring imagery that draws you into meditation or the day-dream of story? How do you describe what you are thinking, sensing? What part does prayer have in the perfecting of the vision, the inspiration, and the call to write what you see and hear? Where does your confidence and authority come from to write your vision?

[bctt tweet=”How Hildegarde wrote from #vision “as flashing flame and as a cloud moving in clear air.” How does #vision inform your #writing? ” username=”@A3writers @misskathypwp”]

[bctt tweet=”#Women Writers in Life and Letters— #Medieval Women Ascetics: #Writing the #Vision ” username=”@A3writers @misskathypwp”]

Reference: Medieval Women’s Visionary Literature, by Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff, Copyright © 1986 by Oxford Univertiy Press, Inc.

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

 

 

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Literary Women in Histor

Milady’s Pen for Posterity

The well-born lay woman . . . led a much freer and fuller life than her sister in religion. On her was laid the task of ordering large numbers of servants, of keeping good store of food and clothing, and of physicking if need be the members of her household.
                                                      Phillips & Tomkinson
                                                     English Women in Life and Letters

Last month we touched upon the life of the German nun and first female playwright, Hrotsvitha. Her cloistered life afforded her the luxury of an education, but little other pleasures in a material sense due to strict disciplines imposed upon her monastic lifestyle. Her written works attained an audience in her lifetime and far beyond leaving a powerful impact for God’s truths.

However, most of the words penned by ladies of the time only knew reading audiences within their households and intimate relationships.

The writing life of women in medieval times remained in the upper spheres of the classes: noblewomen, cloistered nuns, and royalty with access to education. Noble-women and higher-ranked members of the servant class managed households and palaces with efficiency and skill, leaving reams of written notes with the record of their days and household ways.

Largely free of the back-breaking menial chores associated with daily living, noblewomen recorded directives to their staff to accomplish such tasks. They drafted daily menus and managed inventories of valuable stores.

But, beyond the business of household management, lettered noblewomen enjoyed applying pen to paper for leisure in their writing life. Prayer journals, correspondence, fictional tales for personal amusement, and literary translations are left to us for posterity. For the most part, few of these women fancied their written words to have any lasting impact beyond their home. They had no thought to edit their work so we in later years have more honest words from which to, not only learn of historic realities, by more accurately judge the character of the writer in her time. These documents are valuable historic treasures referenced by academic elites and non-fiction readers today. When penned, the writers could not have imagined eager audiences reading their words hundreds of years later. Secrets are shouted from rooftops reflecting upon the authors—for good or ill.

Popular non-fiction reading includes the posthumous publication of private letters, journals, and casual notes saved from the past. The most closely guarded secrets of a woman’s life, in life, finds worldwide readers hundreds of years after her death. Do you ever imagine that will be your story, too?

Women writers in the 21st century trade in words daily. Social media exposes our personal and random reflections on our days and household ways to a world-wide audience almost immediately they are written. There is great debate on the wisdom of so much personal and unedited material flooding the digital world, lingering and accessible to whomever forever. How do the stories your random, unedited writings tell reflect upon you and the things you hold most dear? For many of us, mi’lady’s pen for posterity is a cautionary tale.

Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.  James 3:10 NKJV

Your pen is your tongue—outlasting your life and living still when your physical voice speaks no more. Think on these things for posterity.

  • Steward your random writings in labeled files—both hard copy and digital.
  • Be true to yourself in your records—but truer to God.

Journal Prompt: Would medieval ladies have altered their words if they thought the spilling of their hearts would have such a broad platform and be given great weight as historical documents hundreds of years after their deaths? How do you view and value the random notes or private words you write? Why? Into whose hands will your personal journals, letters, and saved ephemera fall one day? What is the historic legacy your personal writings will leave for posterity?

[bctt tweet=”What medieval women, writing in private, left to the public and posterity #journaling.” username=”@A3writers”]

[bctt tweet=”#Women in Life and Letters— #Writing Milady’s Pen for Posterity” username=”@A3writers”]

Reference:

English Women in Life and Letters, by M. Phillips and W. S. Tomkinson Oxford University Press, 1927

Writer-speaker, Kathryn Ross, ignites a love of literature and learning through Pageant Wagon Productions and Publishing. She writes and publishes homeschool enrichment and Christian living books for home, church, and school. Her passion is to equip women and families in developing a Family Literacy Lifestyle, producing readers and thinkers who can engage the world from a biblical worldview. She blogs and podcasts at TheWritersReverie.com and PageantWagonPublishing.com. Connect with Miss Kathy on Facebook.

Categories
Literary Women in Histor

Hrotsvitha—Lessons from a Medieval Playwright

Until the last century, men dominated the realms of literature, letters, and learning. We read nothing of women exchanging rhetoric and positing thesis among the ancients and classic philosophers of Greece. In fact, the doors of academia and literature largely shut women out in Western culture, relegating them to second class citizenship for a variety of reasons not to be discussed here.

After the fall of Rome in the 5th century, the spread of Christianity allowed greater opportunities for women as readers and writers. Out of the chaos in the dark ages, ordered communities centered around the establishment of Christian monasteries and abbeys—the lifeline of literacy, scholarship, and intellectual life. Cloistered living afforded devout men and women a way to balance devotion, work, and study.

Into this world, Hrostvitha (rose-vee-tuh) was born in 935, a daughter of noble birth in Gandersheim, Germany. She could look forward to many privileges otherwise denied to the greater population of women, including education. Her faith, formed in childhood, put her on the path to the monastic life. She committed her life to the abbey as a “canoness,” a level allowing her free movement in and out of the cloister as a nun. She was schooled in reading and writing in a number of languages. A student of Greek and Roman classics, the plays of Terence captivated her imagination, even though she feared the subject matter would corrupt Christian readers.

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