Edna Ferber

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Edna Ferber, ca.1904

Edna Ferber (born August 15, 1885 in Kalamazoo , Michigan , † April 16, 1968 in New York City ) was an American writer of Hungarian origin.

Life

Ferber came from an educated family. Her father was Jacob Charles Ferber, an immigrant Hungarian of Jewish faith, and her mother Julia Neuman, an American. She also had an older sister named Fanny. Her family found themselves in difficult financial circumstances at times, which led to several moves until the family finally settled in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1897 . During this time, Ferber was partially exposed to anti-Semitic hostility, but overall she had a relatively happy childhood. She attended high school in Appleton, wrote there for the school newspaper and took part in various competitions. She graduated from high school in 1902 and was on a Northwestern University scholarship . However, financial difficulties and her father's blindness forced Ferber to give up her curriculum and instead work as a journalist. After working for the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal for a few years , she suffered a breakdown that ended her career as a journalist. Ferber returned to the home and moved with her family to Chicago in 1909 after the death of her father. There she began to write short stories for magazines and journals, and designed the character of Emma McChesney , whose popularity helped her break through as a writer.

She later belonged to the literary circle Algonquin Round Table in New York, where she met, among others, Dorothy Parker , Franklin Pierce Adams and George S. Kaufman . She had a lifelong enmity with her colleague Alexander Woollcott .

In her popular novels, stories and plays, Ferber describes everyday life in the USA from the early days to the present. In a mixture of realistic and sentimental elements, her works reflect the history of different regions of the USA. Often strong and combative women are the focus of her work. Topics such as racism or the emancipation of women are also dealt with. In 1925 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the novel So Big (Eng. A Woman Alone ) . The novel was first filmed in 1925 with Colleen Moore . Further adaptations followed with Barbara Stanwyck and in 1953 with Jane Wyman in the lead role of a farmer's wife who gains wealth from the vegetable trade and hopes for a better life for her son ( So Big ).

Numerous novels by Ferber have been successfully filmed, including Take What You Can Get , by Howard Hawks and William Wyler in 1936 with Edward Arnold and Joel McCrea ; Giants , 1955 by George Stevens with James Dean , Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor ; and Cimarron , first in 1931 (German pioneers of the wild west ) by Wesley Ruggles with Richard Dix and Irene Dunne and then in 1960 by Anthony Mann with Maria Schell and Glenn Ford .

Her best-known works include the stage plays Show Boat (German: The Comedy Ship ), which was filmed three times, and Dinner at Eight .

Edna Ferber died of stomach cancer on April 16, 1968 in New York.

Honors

Works (selection)

Autobiographies

  • A peculiar treasure . Doubleday, Doran, New York 1960 (EA New York 1939)
  • A kind of magic. An autobiography . Vintage Books, New York 2014 (EA New York 1963).

Anthologies

  • Buttered Side Down . Doubleday Doran, New York 1941 (reprint of the New York 1912 edition)
  • Emma McChesney cycle
    • Roast beef, medium. The business adventures of Emma McChesney . Stokes, New York 1913.
    • Personality Plus. Some experiences of Emma McChesney and her son, Jock . Doubleday Doran, New York 1941 (reprint of the New York 1914 edition).
    • Emma McChesney and Co. Garden City, NY 1944 (reprinted from New York 1915)
  • Fanny Herself . University Press, Urbana, Ill. 2001, ISBN 0-252-02689-6 (EA New York 1917; illustrated by J. Henry)
  • Cheerful by request . Doubleday, Page, Garden City, NY 1918.
  • Half portions . Books for Libraries, Freeport, NY 1970, ISBN 0-386-93672-8 . (Reprinted from Garden City, NY 1919)
  • They Brought Their Women. A book of short stories . Books for Libraries, Plainview, NY 1971 (reprinted from Garden City 1933).
  • No Room at the Inn . Doubleday Doran, New York 1941.
  • Your Town. Stories . World Publ., Cleveland, Ohio 1948.
  • Mother knows best and other stories . Heinemann, London 1927.
  • One basket. 31 short stories . Peoples Book Press, Chicago 1947.

stories

  • Old Man Minick . In: Rose M. Somerville (Ed.): Intimate relationship, marriage, family, and lifestyles through literature . Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1975.
  • At Iowa Childhood . In: John T. Flanagan (Ed.): American is West. An anthology of Middlewestern life and literature . University Press, Minneapolis, Minn. 1945.
  • Gay old dog . In: This is Chicago. At anthology . Holt, New York 1952.
  • From Fanny herself . In: Jules Chametzky (Ed.): Jewish American Literature. A Norton anthology . Norton Books, New York 2001.
  • Girl who went right . In: Joyce Antler (Ed.): American and I. Short stories by American Jewish women writers . Beacon Press, Boston, Mass. 1990.

Novels

  • Dawn O'Hara. The girl who laughed . 8th edition. Grosset & Dunlap, New York 1911.
    • German translation: Laughing with tears. Novel . Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1916.
  • The Girls . World Publ., Cleveland 1948 (reprinted from Garden City, NY 1921)
    • German translation: The girls. Novel . Publishing house Enoch, Hamburg 1928.
  • Gigolo . Books for Libraries, Freeport, NY 1971 (EA Garden City 1922).
  • So big . University Press, Urbana, Ill. 1995, ISBN 0-252-06376-7 (reprint of the New York 1924 edition)
    • German translation: A woman alone . Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt / M. 1964 (former title: So Big )
  • Show boat . Doubleday, New York 1953 (reprint of the New York 1926 edition).
    • German translation: Show Boat. Novel . Goldmann, Munich 1979 (former title: Das Komödiantenschiff ).
  • Cimarron . Fawcett Books, Greenwich, Conn. 1971 (reprint of the New York 1930 edition)
    • German translation: Cimarron. Novel . Goldmann, Munich 1981 (reprint of the Munich 1930 edition).
  • American Beauty . Avon Books, New York 1960 (reprint of New York 1931 edition),
    • German translation: The house of the fathers. Roman (world in books). Desch, Munich 1957 (former title: American Beauty ).
  • Come and Get It . World Publ., Cleveland 1948 (reprint of Garden City 1935)
  • Nobody's in Town. Two short novels . Doubleday Doran, New York 1938.
  • Saratoga Trunk . New edition Penguin, New York 1947.
    • German translation: Saratoga. Novel . 2nd Edition. Goldmann, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-442-06328-0 (reprint of the Zurich 1950 edition).
  • Great Son . Fawcett Crest, New York 1974, ISBN 0-449-22956-4 (EA Garden City 1945)
    • German translation: The great sons . Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1990, ISBN 3-404-11562-7 (reprint of the Nuremberg edition 1950).
  • Giant . Coronet Books, London 1971 (reprint of the New York edition 1952),
    • German translation: Giants . Rütten & Loening, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-352-00723-3 . (EA Zurich 1954)
  • Ice Palace . Fawcett World Library, New York 1971. (Reprinted from Garden City 1958)
    • German translation: The white palace . A novel from Alaska. (World in the book). Desch, Munich 1958.

Plays and scripts

  • The land s bright. A play in three acts . Doubleday Doran, New York 1941.
  • Dinner at Eight . 1932 (with George S. Kaufman)
    • German translation: At 8 o'clock we eat. One piece . Bloch Theaterverlag, Berlin 1933.
  • Our Mrs. McChesney . 1915 (with George V. Hobart)
  • Minick. A play . 1924 (with George S. Kaufman )
  • Stage door . 1926 (with George S. Kaufman)
  • The Royal Family . 1927 (with George S. Kaufman)
  • Saratoga Trunk . 1945 (with Casey Robinson)
  • Bravo . 1949 (with George S. Kaufman)

Adaptations

Musicals

Movies

literature

Essays
  • Steven P. Horowitz: The Americanization of Edna. A study of Mrs. Ferber's Jewish American Identity . In: Studies in American Jewish Literature / NS Vol. 2 (1982), ISSN  0271-9274 .
  • John Riddell: Macaron, as if by Edna Ferber . In: Vanity Fair , Vol. 35 (1930), Issue 2, p. 63, ISSN  0733-8899 .
  • Adam Sol: Art, ethnicity, and the “new woman” in Edna Ferber's “Fanny Herself” . In: Studies in American Jewish Literature / NS Vol. 22 (2003), pp. 120-128, ISSN  0271-9274
  • Jane W. Stedman: Edna Ferber and "Menues with Meanings" . In: Journal of American Culture , Vol. 2 (1979), Issue 3, p. 454, ISSN  0191-1813 .
  • Martin L. Sternberg: A club for the Deaf enjoys Edna Ferber . In: Volta Review , Vol. 50 (1948), Issue 2, p. 66, ISSN  0042-8639 .
Monographs
  • Felicitas Giessen: America in the work of Edna Ferber . Triltsch Verlag, Würzburg 1935 (plus dissertation, University of Bonn 1935).
  • Julie G. Gilbert: Ferber. Edna Ferber and her circle; a biography . Applause Publ., New York 1999, ISBN 1-55783-332-X .
  • Eliza R. McGraw: Edna Ferber's America . University Press, Baton Rouge, Lou. 2013, ISBN 978-0-8071-5188-4 .
  • Jennifer E. Smyth: Edna Ferber's Hollywood. American Fictions of Gender, Race, and History . University Press, Austin, Tx 2011, ISBN 978-0-292-71984-2 .
  • Mary R. Shaughnessy: Women in success in American society in the works of Edna Ferber . New York 1977.
  • Howard Teichmann: George S. Kaufman . 3. Edition. Atheneum Books New York 1972.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Janet Burstein: Edna Ferber (1985-1968) . Jewish Women's Archive
  2. ↑ a b c d e f R. Baird Shuman (Ed.): Great American Writers: Twentieth Century . Marshal Cavendish, 2002, ISBN 9780761472407 , pp. 498-505
  3. ↑ Julie Goldsmith Gilbert: Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle . Applause Books (reprint), 1999, ISBN 9781557833327 , p. 105
  4. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes (winner) . at pulitzer.org. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
  5. ↑ Members: Edna Ferber. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Contents: Nobody's in Town. - Trees that are at the top.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ferber, Edna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer of Hungarian origin
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Kalamazoo
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1968
Place of death New York City