Harriette Simpson Arnow
| Harriette Simpson Arnow | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Harriette Louisa Simpson July 7, 1908 Wayne County, Kentucky |
| Died | March 22, 1986 (aged 77) Washtenaw County, Michigan |
| Pen name | H. L. Simpson |
| Occupation | writer, teacher |
Harriette Arnow (July 7, 1908 – March 22, 1986) was an American novelist, who lived in Kentucky and Michigan. Arnow has been called an expert on the people of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, but she herself loved cities and spent crucial periods of her life in Cincinnati and Detroit.
Arnow was born as Harriette Louisa Simpson in Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky, and grew up in neighboring Pulaski County. She was one of six siblings in a family that traced its heritage to the Revolutionary War; both parents were teachers and she was raised to be a teacher.
She attended Berea College for two years before transferring to the University of Louisville, after which she worked for two years as a teacher in rural Pulaski County, then one of the more remote areas of Appalachia, before moving to Cincinnati. In 1935 she published her first works in Esquire, two short stories — "A Mess of Pork" and "Marigolds and Mules" under the pen name H. L. Simpson, sending a photo of her brother-in-law to disguise her gender.
In 1936 she published her first novel, Mountain Path, basing it on her experiences as a teacher. Under the instructions of her publisher, Arnow added sensational "Appalachian" stereotypical elements (moonshining, feuds) to her original work, a much more sedate series of sketches.
From 1934 to 1939 she lived in Cincinnati and worked for the Federal Writer's Project of the WPA where she met her future husband, Harold B. Arnow, the son of Jewish immigrants, in 1939. They lived briefly in Pulaski County, Harriette again working as a teacher, before settling in a public housing complex in Detroit, Michigan in 1944. Her 1949 novel, Hunter's Horn, was a best seller and received considerable critical acclaim, finishing close to William Faulkner's A Fable in that year's voting for the Pulitzer Prize.
...
Wikipedia