Olive Higgins Prouty

Olive Higgins Prouty

Olive Higgins Prouty , nee Olive Chapin Higgins (born January 10, 1882 in Worcester , Massachusetts , † March 24, 1974 in Brookline , Massachusetts), was an American writer .

Life

Olive Higgins Prouty was born the youngest child of Milton Prince Higgins and Katherine Elizabeth Chapin to a wealthy family in Worcester, Massachusetts. After graduating from Worcester Classical High School , she graduated from Smith College with a bachelor's degree in literature in 1904 . She originally wanted to work as a writer afterwards, but under pressure from the family she returned to Worchester and married Lewis Isaac Prouty (1871-1951) on June 12, 1907. She was married to him until his death and had four children with him: Anne, Olivia, Richard (1912–2012) and Jane Chapin Prouty (1909–1992). Anne and Olivia both died in infancy. She moved to Brookline with her husband and published her first short story When Elsie Came Home in American Magazine . She later processed her short story into her first novel Bobbie, General Manager , which was published in 1913.

With Stella Dallas , Prouty published her greatest success in 1923. She dedicated the book to her three-year-old daughter, who previously died of encephalitis . The story is about a mother who sacrifices herself and her happiness in order to be there for her children. Just a year later, the novel was adapted into a play. Just one year later, The Victim of Stella Dallas appeared in 1925, the first of three films. The other two were Stella Dallas (1937) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Stella (1990) starring Bette Midler , John Goodman and Ben Stiller . Her second novel to be filmed was Now, Voyager , published in 1941 . This was staged by Irving Rapper after just a year . With Bette Davis , Paul Henreid and Gladys Cooper in the leading roles, Journey from the Past was released in US cinemas in 1942.

Prouty also got involved in charities and donated a gifted scholarship for young authors at Smith College. One of the scholarship holders was the future writer Sylvia Plath . She committed a suicide attempt in 1953 . Prouty paid for her stay in hospital and became close friends with the writer. These events were later processed in Plath's only novel The Bell Glass .

After the death of her husband in 1951, Prouty stopped writing and from then on lived alone in the house in which they had lived together since 1913. Her autobiography Pencil Shavings: Memoirs , published in 1961, was no longer published and was self-published.

Works

• 1913: Bobbie, general manager
• 1916: The Fifth Wheel
• 1918: The Star in the Window
• 1923: Stella Dallas
• 1927: Conflict
• 1931: The White Fawn
• 1938: Lisa Vale
• 1941: Now, Voyager
• 1947: Home Port
• 1951: Fabia
• 1961: Pencil Shavings: Memoirs

Web links

• Olive Higgins Prouty in the Internet Movie Database (English)