Rose Neal is the author of the new biography E.D.E.N. Southworth's Hidden Hand: The Untold Story of America's Famous Forgotten Nineteenth-Century Author. Also an educator, Neal lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Q: What inspired you to write this biography of the writer E.D.E.N. Southworth (1819-1899)?
A: I discovered Southworth when I returned to the university to work on a master’s degree in English. I struggled to find a topic for my thesis until I took Pamela Washington’s class Nineteenth Century American Women Writers.
One aspect of the class that was particularly interesting was the discovery that the 19th century contained so many women writers. Many years ago, while working on my undergrad degree, almost all of the authors we were required to read were men.
Furthermore, when I first began teaching English, my student’s literature textbooks were comprised primarily of male authors. In this women’s writers’ class, I was delighted learning about many women authors that I didn’t know about.
Southworth and her Hidden Hand stood out above the rest, and I eagerly read more and more novels that she wrote, and I knew I’d found the topic for my thesis, which focused on how Southworth’s works inspired a generation of women to be more self-sufficient and seek opportunities to become better educated and informed about the world in which they lived.
During that journey as well as my continued research during my dissertation, I discovered more clues that Southworth had led as interesting life as any of her heroines.
Q: The book's subtitle describes Southworth as “America’s Famous Forgotten Nineteenth-Century Author.” Why was she forgotten?
A: When Southworth lived and wrote, women almost exclusively lived in the “domestic sphere” and were quite limited from entering the world of commerce (“man’s domain”). However, after being abandoned by her husband Frederick, she had to earn a living to support herself and two children.
To accomplish publishing in a man’s world, she needed to make herself appear as unassuming as possible. She created an image of herself as a meek, demure, and helpless woman who only wrote so that she and her children didn’t starve.
While she, indeed, needed to earn a living, the way she portrayed herself was only partly true. She was neither meek nor helpless.
She branded herself as “a widow in fate though not in fact” as a means of hiding progressive views on women’s rights, social class equality, capital punishment, domestic violence within the subplots of her novels. Her male critics backed off and her women readers eagerly read her works, and her popularity soared.
While she was successful at “hiding in plain sight,” this branding also helped to bury her, especially as the modern age of literature began in the 20th century.
Q: How did you research her life, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: On more than one occasion, Southworth told reporters that she only wrote about what she experienced in real life, both her own and other true tales.
Based on facts I learned from reading newspaper articles about her life as well as letters to her editor Robert Bonner and her daughter Charlotte (Lottie), I pieced together other “facts” that were once again hidden within the pages of her novels. Scholar Susan K. Harris even referred to Southworth’s novel The Deserted Wife as the author’s “spiritual biography.”
What especially surprised me about Southworth is the way her writing changed after a serious illness she’d suffered in 1876. She was obsessive about her grown children and wanted to remain as close to them as possible, which meant that after she recovered from her illness, she and her son Richmond moved from D.C. to New York to live within a mile of Lottie and her growing family.
By this time, Southworth was so famous, readers would buy anything she wrote, so she remained popular and successful. However, these later novels for the most part fell into the category of domestic sensational fiction (much like Hallmark movies today).
While her earlier novels could also be classified as such, she hid very progressive ideology within the subplots. These later novels either briefly touch on such subjects or don’t have them in there at all.
But, I mean, who doesn’t love a good Hallmark movie? She realized she just didn’t have to work as hard as she’d once done and could spend more time being a grandma.
Q: The author Caroline Franklin said of the book that it “deftly demonstrates how Southworth transformed her own life experiences into scandalous fiction engaging with the most tendentious social issues of the day.” What do you think of that description, and what do you see as Southworth's legacy today?
A: I think Dr. Franklin’s description aptly captures what Southworth did.
One of her main goals was to warn her mostly female readers, especially young women, not to fall into traps set by less-than-virtuous men. Southworth herself had been abandoned by her husband and left to raise a 3-year-old son and an unborn daughter.
She further wanted to empower women to stand up for themselves, and through her heroines, she created scenarios that showed readers how to do it. Many of the social ills she addressed in her novels such as poverty and domestic violence still exist today.
As far as Southworth’s legacy today, I would like for her to be known by new generations of women and honored as a part of our American history that sought to make the world a better place. My hope is that through this biography, she will be forgotten no more.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am currently researching and writing an historical fiction novel based on the 1893 Oklahoma land run into the Cherokee Strip (the northwestern part of the state).
Much has been written about the first run in 1889, but Oklahoma had seven land runs in all. The Cherokee Strip Land Run had even more participants than the ’89 run, but not as much has been written about this time in history.
My story will focus on the Cook family’s journey into Oklahoma Territory, especially the female heroine Easter, and how they overcame hardships and struggles to prosper in this often-unforgiving land.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I spent my first career as a high school English teacher and didn’t go back to work on a master’s then Ph.D. until my children were almost grown. I’ve now retired from teaching and am beginning my second career as an author.
Much like Southworth, I would like to empower my younger readers and let them know that it’s never too late to follow your dreams and pursue that which fills your passions.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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