![]() ![]() Her characters tend to be explorers venturing into uncharted territories. Her poorly-funded nomadic existence (including her years as a European ex-pat with James and company) may have been difficult, but made for vibrant writing about place. Woolson’s work is very much a product of her time. Interestingly enough, some of the conversation remains whether or not we ought to pay much attention to her at all: “Coming across you start to understand why Woolson’s advocates stake their arguments on her personality and independence more often than on excerpts from her prose,” writes one critic, who wonders whether Woolson’s fiction lived up to her own high standards. The two books are meant to elevate Woolson from her place as a footnote in history, and, indeed, people are talking about her. ![]() Rioux has also edited a collection of Woolson’s short fiction, Miss Grief. The title of Anne Boyd Rioux’s comprehensive new biography of Woolson, Portrait of a Lady Novelist, nods to this relationship. But what she is best known for is her friendship with Henry James, whose literary fame has proved more enduring, and whose dramatic reaction to her death–drowning all her dresses in the Grand Canal–is the only thing most people know about her. Woolson published five novels and dozens of short stories before her death in 1894 at age 54. ![]() ![]() Constance Fenimore Woolson was an American Realist writer of renown in the 1870s-1890s, when she was one of the few women considered to be peers with their male counterparts. ![]()
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