Alice French
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Alice French (March 19, 1850–January 9, 1934), better known as Octave Thanet, was an American novelist.
She was born at Andover, Massachusetts, a daughter of George Henry and Frances Wood French. She graduated from Abbot Academy in Andover, in 1868. She began her literary career about 1878 with studies of a social and economic bent, but soon turned to short stories, especially after her removal to Davenport, Iowa. Iowa and Arkansas gave her opportunities for exploiting regions hitherto little attempted in fiction. Her stories “The Bishop's Vagabond,” “The Hay of the Cyclone,” and “Whitsun Harp, Regulator” were popular. These, with other articles, initially appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and Scribner's Magazine. Later they appeared in her books. Her novel Expiation (1890), won high praise.
French's mother, Frances, was the daughter of Massachusetts Governor Marcus Morton.
Partial bibliography
- The Bishop's Vagabond (1884)
- Knitters in the Sun (1887)
- We All (1889)
- Stories of a Western Town (1892)
- Otto the Knight (1893)
- A Book of True Lovers (1897)
- Missionary Sheriff (1897)
- The Heart of Toil (1898)
- An Adventure in Photography (1899)
- The Best Letters of Mary Wortley Montagu (1901) (editor)
- The Man of the Hour (1905)
- Stories That End Well (1911)
- A Step on the Stair (1913)
