Ellen Glasgow

Ellen Glasgow
Portrait of Ellen Glasgow, by Aimé Dupont
Born	Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1873-04-22)April 22, 1873 Richmond, Virginia
Died	November 21, 1945(1945-11-21) (aged 72) Richmond, Virginia
Occupation	Novelist
Signature

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 – November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who portrayed the changing world of the contemporary South.

Born into an elite Virginia family in Richmond, Virginia, the young Glasgow developed in a different way from that traditional to women of her class. Due to poor health, she was educated at home in Richmond. She read deeply in philosophy, social and political theory, and European and British literature. She spent her summers at her family's Bumpass, Virginia, estate, the historic Jerdone Castle plantation, a setting that she used in her writings. Her father, Francis Thomas Glasgow, was the son of Arthur Glasgow and Catherine Anderson. He was raised in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and graduated from Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, in 1847.

Glasgow's maternal uncle, Joseph Reid Anderson, graduated fourth in his class of 49 from West Point in 1836. On April 4, 1848, he purchased the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond. When news of the secession reached Richmond, Anderson promptly joined the Army of Northern Virginia, achieving the rank of general. General Robert E. Lee asked him to return to Tredegar Ironworks to manage the manufacturing on which Lee's victory would depend. Francis Glasgow later managed the Tredegar Iron Works. Glasgow thought her father self-righteous and unfeeling. But, some of her more admirable characters reflect a Scots-Calvinist background like his and a similar "iron vein of Presbyterianism."