Arts and Letters

In that army of writers who over the years have staked literary claims to regional America, surely Edna Ferber was the biggest landholder. Moreover, she successfully cultivated every area she took over. I can recall only one instance in which a neighborhood resented her moving in. She stepped on several sensitive toes in her social panorama of Texas, but the rest of the country welcomed and relished Giant as it did everything else recorded by the eye and mind of this keenly observant storyteller.

Dawn O'Hara, her first book and an immediately successful one, gave America a glimpse of Wisconsin in 1911. In 1917 she took readers again to Wisconsin in Fanny Herself. New York was the background for her very popular Emma McChesney stories and the novel, Personality Plus. So Big, which won her a Pulitzer Prize in 1924, and The Girls saw her move into Illinois. Few readers failed to follow her to the Mississippi in 1926 when she wrote Showboat. Incidentally its research resulted in one of the many gracious expressions of gratitude instinctive in Edna. She spent several weeks on the showboat owned and operated by the legendary Billy Bryant. Edna so appreciated the hospitality of Billy and his actress wife, who was always billed as "the Mary Pickford of the River," that she invited them to visit her in New York. On the Mississippi Mrs. Bryant had told Edna she had never seen any of America's women stars of the theater. After a week of sightseeing the Bryants were guests of honor at a memorable party. I was present that evening and observed Mrs. Bryant's delight as she chatted with Ethel Barrymore, Laurette Taylor, Jane Cowl, Helen Hayes, Lenore Ulric, Grace George, Pauline Lord, Minnie Maddern Fiske, and other celebrities.

In 1930 Edna became a literary "Sooner" when she moved into Oklahoma for research on Cimarron. After taking over part of Connecticut for American Beauty in 1931, Illinois and Wisconsin once more became the scene of Come and Get It (1934). In her first autobiographical book, A Peculiar Treasure (1938), she moved about Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Illinois. In 1941 Saratoga Trunk took her to New York and New Orleans. For Great Son (1944) she went to Seattle, Washington. For the background to Ice Palace (1958) she went into new territory, Alaska. A Kind of Magic (1963) took us to many parts of the country.

In the accuracy of her geographic details, Edna revealed the sharp reportorial eye she first focused in her early work on newspapers in the middle west.

Most novelists stub their toes when they enter the theater as playwrights. George S. Kaufman admired Edna's sure-footedness and she did her full share in the construction and writing of Minick, The Royal Family, Dinner at Eight, and The Land is Bright, on which they collaborated.

Edna's productivity was consistent with her habit of industry. Until shortly before her death, it was her invariable practice to sit herself before her typewriter at 8:00 a.m., and only a distraction of great importance would make her leave it before noon. If her four-hour stint was not satisfactorily productive, she would resume work after lunch.

In the 1920s Edna lived with her mother in an apartment at 50 Central Park West. Mrs. Ferber, Julia to her and Edna's friends, was her constant companion. One day Edna decided she could work better if she lived alone. A score of us went to her apartment-warming when she moved into the Lombardy on East 56th Street. Two days later Edna's burst of independence ended when she brought Julia into the Lombardy too.

Because she was an engrossing storyteller, most of Edna's novels became memorable motion pictures, and the musical play Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern made from Showboat set new standards in its genre. To future social historians Edna left a rich heritage, and to her friends a great emptiness.