Bess Streeter Aldrich

Bess Streeter Aldrich
Bess Streeter Aldrich bust by Herman Albert Becker
Born	Bess Genevra Streeter (1881-02-17)February 17, 1881 Cedar Falls, Iowa
Died	August 3, 1954(1954-08-03)(aged 73) Lincoln, Nebraska
Pen name	Margaret Dean Stephens
Occupation	Writer (novelist)
Nationality	American
Period	20th century
Genre	Fiction
Notable works	"The Woman Who Was Forgotten",Miss Bishop
Spouse	Charles Aldrich

Bess Streeter Aldrich(pen name,Margaret Dean Stephens;February 17, 1881 – August 3, 1954) was an American author.

Life and career

The Elms, Aldrich's home in Elmwood, Nebraska, is listed in theNational Register of Historic Places.

Bust of Aldrich created in 1973 by Herman Albert Becker for theNebraska Hall of Fame.

Bess Genevra Streeter was born inCedar Falls, Iowa.She was the last of the eight children of James Wareham and Mary Wilson Anderson Streeter.Attending high school in Cedar Falls, she was the winner of two magazine fiction-writing contests prior to graduating at age 17.After graduating fromIowa State Normal Schoolwith a teaching certificate, she taught school at several locations in Utah, later returning to Cedar Falls to earn an advanced degree in education.

In 1907, she married Charles Sweetzer Aldrich, who had graduated with a law degree fromIowa State Universityand had been one of the youngest captains in theSpanish–American War.Following the war, he served for years as a U.S. Commissioner inAlaska.They had four children — Mary, Robert, Charles and James. In 1909, they moved with their children and Bess's widowed mother toElmwood, Nebraska,where Charles, Bess, and Bess's sister and brother-in-law Clara and John Cobb purchased the American Exchange Bank. Elmwood became the location for many of her stories, albeit called by different names.

Aldrich began writing more regularly in 1911 when theLadies' Home Journaladvertised a fiction contest, which she entered and won $175 for her story "The Little House Next Door". After this success, she continued to write and submit work to publications such asMcCall's,Harper's Weekly,andThe American Magazinewhere she was generally paid between one and one-hundred dollars for her work.Prior to 1918 she wrote under her pen name, "Margaret Dean Stephens".She went on to become one of the highest-paid women writers of the period. Her stories often concerned the Heartland/Plains pioneer history and were very popular with teenage girls and young women.

Aldrich's first novel,Mother Mason,was published in 1924. When Charles died suddenly of acerebral hemorrhagein 1925 at the age of 52,Aldrich took up writing as a means of supporting her family. She was the author of about 200 short stories, including "The Woman Who Was Forgotten"(adapted into a film of the same title in 1931), and thirteen novels, includingMiss Bishop.The latter novel was made into the movieCheers for Miss Bishopin 1941, which starredMartha ScottandEdmund Gwennand premiered inLincoln, Nebraska.

Aldrich received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in literature from theUniversity of Nebraskain 1934 and was named into theNebraska Hall of Famein 1971. In 1946, Aldrich moved toLincoln, Nebraska,to be closer to her daughter and her writing slowed to just one story per year as age began to take its toll.She died of cancer on August 3, 1954, and was buried next to her husband inElmwood, Nebraska.

Aldrich's papers are held at theNebraska State Historical SocietyinLincoln, Nebraska.

Works

Novels

• Mother Mason(1924)
• The Rim of the Prairie(1925)
• The Cutters(1926)
• A Lantern in Her Hand(1928)
• A White Bird Flying(1931)
• Miss Bishop(1933)
• Spring Came On Forever(1935)
• The Man Who Caught the Weather(1936)
• Song of Years(1939)
• The Drum Goes Dead(1941)
• The Lieutenant's Lady(1942)
• Journey into Christmas(1949)
• The Bess Streeter Aldrich Reader(1950)
• A Bess Streeter Aldrich Treasury(1959) (posthumous)

Other books

• The Collected Short Works, 1907–1919
• The Collected Short Works, 1920–1954

Magazine and newspaper articles

• A Late Love, Baltimore News, (1898)
• The Outsider, Christian Herald (1945)

External links

• Official websiteAll information on Aldrich's life and times.
• Works by Bess Streeter AldrichatFaded Page(Canada)
• Works by Bess Streeter AldrichatProject Gutenberg Australia
• Bess Streeter AldrichatIMDb