Following the modernist disdain once expressed by Willa Cather, literary historians of the 20th century have until recently largely regarded the work of prolific 19th-century American novelist
E. D. E. N. Southworth as unworthy of much critical attention and relegated her writings to the niche of mass popular women’s fiction with little to distinguish themselves from each other or
from other examples of the genre. Even recent studies of Southworth have focused almost exclusively on only one of Southwork’s many novels, The Hidden Hand. In contrast, this collection edited
by Homestead (English, U. of Nebraska) and Washington (English, U. of Central Oklahoma) presents a picture of Southwork, her fiction, and her readers as more complex than the received wisdom of
previous literary history. The editors present 12 essays on Southwork’s writings that are clustered into thematic sections focusing on periodical contexts, genre, intertextuality, and marriage.
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