Kathleen Norris

Kathleen Norris in 1925, photograph by Arnold Genthe.

For the contemporary poet/essayist of the same name (b. 1947), see Kathleen Norris (poet)

Kathleen Thompson Norris (July 16, 1880 – January 18, 1966) was a popular American novelist and newspaper columnist. She was one of the most widely read and highest paid female writers in the United States for nearly fifty years, from 1911 to 1959. Her stories appeared in the Atlantic, The American Magazine, McClure's, Everybody's, Ladies' Home Journal and Woman's Home Companion, and she wrote 93 novels, many of which were best sellers. She used her fiction to promote values including the sanctity of marriage, the nobility of motherhood, and the importance of service to others.

Life and career

Norris was born and died in San Francisco, California. When she was 19 both her parents died, and as the oldest sibling she became effectively the head of a large family. She had to become a breadwinner, and worked in a department store followed by an accounting office and then the Mechanic's Institute Library. She began writing short stories, and in 1905 enrolled in a creative writing program at the University of California, Berkeley. In September 1906 the San Francisco Call, which had published a few of her stories, hired her to write a society column. In the course of that work she met Charles Gilman Norris (whose late older brother was the famous novelist Frank Norris), and they soon fell in love. He moved to New York to be art editor of The American Magazine. After eight months of daily correspondence and some improvements in her family's financial situation, she joined him there and they were married in April 1909.

She resumed writing short stories, which began to appear in newspapers and then magazines starting in 1910. Charles took on a lifelong role as Kathleen's literary agent, and also took care of many household management roles as she became increasingly successful as a writer. Shortly after becoming a new mother, she wrote her first novel, Mother. It started as a short story in The American Magazine in 1911. A publisher asked her to expand it into a novelette, which became a national sensation and earned the praise of Theodore Roosevelt for its celebration of large families. A devout Catholic, she wrote the book in part as a commentary against birth control, which was rapidly influencing women's attitudes about motherhood. Her 1914 novel Saturday's Child received a positive, lengthy review from William Dean Howells, who remarked on her sensitivity to class issues.

Norris became involved in various social causes, including women's suffrage, Prohibition, pacifism, and organizations to benefit children and the poor.

Many of her novels were made into films, including My Best Girl (1927), The Callahans and the Murphys (1927), Passion Flower (1930), and Change of Heart (1934, based on the novel Manhattan Love Song).

Some of Norris's novels were adapted for a radio series, By Kathleen Norris, making her "the first nationally famous writer to have her works brought to radio listeners as a daily serial program." The program, produced by Phillips Lord, was broadcast on CBS October 9, 1939 - September 26, 1941.

Family

In 1919 the family moved to a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Saratoga, California, adjacent to the Villa Montalvo estate of James Duval Phelan. They later built a house in Palo Alto and spent summers at the ranch. Kathleen's sister Teresa, who had married William Rose Benét and borne three children, died in 1919. Kathleen fought for and eventually obtained guardianship of the two nieces and a nephew, Rosemary, Kathleen Anne and James Benét.

Her granddaughter Kathleen Norris (San Francisco 1 Mar 1935-San Francisco 8 Dec 1967) was the second wife of Prince Andrew Romanov (b. London 21 Jan 1923).

Selected bibliography

File:Silver Sheet January 01 1924 - CHRISTINE OF THE HUNGRY HEART.pdf

• Mother (1911; new edition, 1913)
• The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne (1912)
• Poor Dear Margaret Kirby (1913)
• The Treasure (1914)
• Saturday's Child (1914)
• The Story Of Julia Page (1915)
• The Heart of Rachael (1916)
• Martie the Unconquered (1917)
• Josselyn's Wife (1918)
• Harriet and the Piper (1920)
• The Beloved Woman (1921)
• Certain People of Importance (1922)
• Lucretia Lombard (1922)
• Little Ships (1925)
• Hildegarde (1926)
• The Sea Gull (1927)
• The Foolish Virgin (1927)
• Younger Sister (1928)
• Home (1928)
• The Love of Julie Borel (1930)
• Second Hand Wife (1932)
• Maiden Voyage (1934)
• Beauty's Daughter (1935), adapted for the 1935 motion picture Navy Wife
• Shining Windows (1935)
• Bread into Roses (1936)
• Secret Marriage (1936)
• Over at the Crowleys (1941)
• The Venables (1941)
• Through A Glass Darkly (1955)

External links

• The Kathleen Thompson Norris Society website
• Guide to the Norris Family Papers at The Bancroft Library
• Kathleen Norris entries as found in Library of Congress Online Catalog search
• Kathleen Norris Obituary, New York Times
• Kathleen Norris Obituary, TIME Magazine
• Kathleen Norris Biography, The Literature Network
• Kathleen Norris at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by Kathleen Thompson Norris at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Kathleen Norris at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Kathleen Norris at Find a Grave
• The FictionMags Index