Frances Newman

Southern Satirist and Literary Rebel

Author: Barbara Wade

In the first biographical and literary assessment of writer Frances Newman (1883-1928), biographer Barbara Wade draws from Newman's personal correspondence and newspaper articles to reveal a vibrant, independent woman who simultaneously defied and was influenced by the traditional southern society she satirized in her writing.

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Novelist, translator, critic, and acerbic book reviewer Frances Newman (1883-1928) was praised by Virginia novelist James Branch Cabell and critic H. L. Mencken. Her experimental novels The Hard-Boiled Virgin (1926) and Dead Lovers Are Faithful Lovers (1928), have recently begun to receive serious critical attention, but this is the first book-length study to focus both on Newman's life and on her fiction.

Frances Newman was born into a prominent Atlanta family and was educated at private schools in the South and the Northeast. Her first novel, The Hard-Boiled Virgin, was hailed by James Branch Cabell as ""the most brilliant, the most candid, the most civilised, and the most profound yet written by any American woman."" Cabell and H. L. Mencken became Newman's literary mentors and loyally supported her satire of southern culture, which revealed the racism, class prejudice, and religious intolerance that reinforced the idealised image of the white southern lady. Writing within a nearly forgotten feminist tradition of southern women's fiction, Newman portrayed the widely acclaimed social change in the early part of the century in the South as superficial rather than substantial, with its continued restrictive roles for women in courtship and marriage and limited educational and career opportunities.

Barbara Wade explores Newman's place in the feminist literary tradition by comparing her novels with those of her contemporaries Ellen Glasgow, Mary Johnston, and Isa Glenn. Wade draws from Newman's personal correspondence and newspaper articles to reveal a vibrant, independent woman who simultaneously defied and was influenced by the traditional southern society she satirised in her writing.

Critic Reviews

“"Wade's compact and deftly written account draws on social and women's history, literary criticism and theory, and literary history to dispel persisting misconceptions about Newman and her critique of New South gender roles."-- Journal of Southern History”

"[Wade's book has] a good deal to offer in the ongoing task of excavating women's traditions in southern writing."
--Southern Literary Journal
"Wade makes the case that Newman is an avant-garde stylist whose work must be read alongside that of Stein. In addition, Newman's comment on the South is handled with precision and insight."
--Kathryn Lee Seidel, University of Central Florida