Constance Fenimore Woolson

November 9, 2015
In this thoughtful retelling of Constance Fenimore Woolson’s life, Rioux, a professor of English at the University of New Orleans and president of the Woolson Society, seeks to bring the “lady novelist” out of the shadow of her great friend Henry James. Woolson had already published a short story collection, when, in 1880, she met James, who later used her as a model for characters in his fiction. Born in 1840 to a distinguished family—her mother’s family founded Cooperstown, N.Y., and her granduncle was the novelist James Fenimore Cooper—Woolson was a bookish, serious, observant child. Haunted by financial insecurity and depression as an adult, she led a peripatetic life in the U.S. and Europe, eventually settling down in Venice. All the while, Woolson sought to find a balance between society’s expectations for women and her own creative fire and drive, a dichotomy she never reconciled completely. Her lonely, ambiguous death at the age of 53—falling from the window of her Venetian palazzo, in an apparent suicide—is perhaps the most vivid reminder of the painful choices she had to make. Her work merits reexamination, and Rioux has brought to life an unjustly forgotten writer.

November 15, 2015
A fine reappraisal of the work of the Victorian novelist and dear friend to Henry James. In this comprehensive, fleshed-out biography, author Rioux (English/Univ. of New Orleans; Writing for Immortality: Women and the Emergence of High Literary Culture in America, 2004, etc.) works back from Woolson's suicide in 1894 to consider the enormous obstacles a woman writer in her era had to overcome in the sexist American literary culture. Woolson's work was largely overshadowed by her contemporary and frequent companion James, and Rioux does not speculate idly about their relationship outside of their mutual devotion to their work, loneliness, and James' essential "underlying disdain for women writers." Indeed, Woolson grasped that disdain and even--painful as it is to modern readers--subsumed the sexist strictures of the time, declaring to James, "a woman, after all, can never be a complete artist." Yet the two novelists were serializing their work in periodicals at the same time and similarly employed intelligent, thwarted, unrealized female characters in their fiction. A product of a large Cleveland family of mostly daughters--many of whom died tragically in their youth--Woolson saw firsthand the wasted fates of mothers and wives. She narrowly "escaped" (her word) a similar fate in marriage in her late 20s before choosing the writing life over teaching (the two professions available to single women), partly due to her middle name--James Fenimore Cooper was her great uncle. Woolson was determined to make a living by her pen, and she was able to support her mother and sister, moving constantly and eventually settling in Venice--although she was plagued by depression and ill health for much of her life. Rioux delineates the toll her writing ambition took on her and how, curiously, she hid her lethal literary drive from her friend James. An intelligent, sympathetic portrait of a complicated, even tortured writer who calls for fresh readers.

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Starred review from January 1, 2016
Resurrecting an American WriterConstance Fenimore Woolson (184094) was once so famous that debates about her intrepid fiction raged in the press on both sides of the Atlantic. But soon after her death, if she was remembered at all, it was only as a close friend of Henry James. Rioux has brought Woolson back to the republic of letters by writing a vivid, deeply involving biography, Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist, and by putting together Miss Grief and Other Stories, a potent collection of Woolson's short fiction. So curious as a child that she was nicknamed And Why?, the keenly intelligent Woolson became an excruciatingly self-critical young woman who read ardently and wrote beautifully. After all, she had literature in her blood; James Fenimore Cooper of The Last of the Mohicans fame was her great-uncle. Her father encouraged her but certainly didn't want her to write professionally. Fate asserted itself, however, when, all gussied up to make the social rounds and meet eligible young men, Woolson spilled a bottle of ink on her fancy dress. Yet misogynist social constraints kept her from publishing until she was 30 and in dire need of income. Rioux writes with captivating lucidity and conviction as she chronicles Woolson's fortitude, abiding responsibility, constant travels, utter commitment to artistic excellence, and exhausting struggles for literary success and personal independence. Woolson wrote not about family, as many of her female peers did, but rather about places and situations far and wild. Having grown up in Cleveland, she was deeply affected by the booming industrial town's deleterious impact on the Great Lakes region, which she depicted with a naturalist's acuity and an environmentalist's concern. She also daringly wrote from a male point of view, frequently exposing the limitations of her male characters' ability to understand women's minds and motives. Sojourns in the South during Reconstruction evoked Woolson's deep insights into the psychological toll of the Civil War, resulting in uniquely sympathetic stories about the decimated land and its traumatized people that brought her tremendous renown. As for Woolson's close relationship with Henry James during her long expat years in Europe, Rioux sensitively postulates that the two trusted and loved each other as close friends, even though rivalry seethed. Contending with deafness and depression, Woolson sought human connection in literature, perfecting an approach that Rioux describes as empathic realism. Woolson not only held herself to high ethical standards, she was also a perfectionist, exhausting herself physically as she rewrote her manuscripts over and over again. All that effort, and still she remained poor and without a home, dying tragically and possibly suicidally in Venice at age 53. In conclusion, Rioux offers smart and poignant insights into why Woolson was forgotten and why her unapologetically sincere and passionate novels and stories fell so swiftly out of favor. It is a boon for everyone interested in American literature and women's lives to have Woolson back on the shelf.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

Starred review from December 1, 2015

Constance Fenimore Woolson, a grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper, was a prolific and acclaimed 19th-century writer in her own right, penning novels and short stories set in such places as Michigan's Mackinac Island and the postbellum South. Woolson also had a close literary friendship with Henry James. Unfortunately, her significant literary contributions were forgotten within a few decades of her death in 1894. Rioux (English, Univ. of New Orleans; Wielding the Pen) attempts to remedy this oversight with this excellent biography. This work is thoroughly researched, with the author drawing from correspondence, journals, and other archival documents, as well as featuring photos and passages from Woolson's noteworthy literary works. Despite Woolson's success and welcome relocation to Europe, she struggled with deafness and severe depression. The author also had to confront the extreme male chauvinism held toward women writers in late 19th-century literary circles. Her death in Venice after a fall from a window was most likely a suicide. VERDICT An important contribution to reestablishing this long overlooked writer to her rightful place in the American literary canon, this excellent book will captivate readers interested in women's studies and late 19th-century American literature. [See Prepub Alert, 8/17/15.]--Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2015

Regarded as a model for Isabelle Archer in Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, novelist/poet/travelogist Constance Fenimore Woolson was an acclaimed and popular writer during her lifetime but faded into the background after her death in 1894. Now there's a resurgence of interest in Woolson, with her works seen as strong early examples of both regional literature and the women's perspective.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015

Constance Fenimore Woolson, a grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper, was a prolific and acclaimed 19th-century writer in her own right, penning novels and short stories set in such places as Michigan's Mackinac Island and the postbellum South. Woolson also had a close literary friendship with Henry James. Unfortunately, her significant literary contributions were forgotten within a few decades of her death in 1894. Rioux (English, Univ. of New Orleans; Wielding the Pen) attempts to remedy this oversight with this excellent biography. This work is thoroughly researched, with the author drawing from correspondence, journals, and other archival documents, as well as featuring photos and passages from Woolson's noteworthy literary works. Despite Woolson's success and welcome relocation to Europe, she struggled with deafness and severe depression. The author also had to confront the extreme male chauvinism held toward women writers in late 19th-century literary circles. Her death in Venice after a fall from a window was most likely a suicide. VERDICT An important contribution to reestablishing this long overlooked writer to her rightful place in the American literary canon, this excellent book will captivate readers interested in women's studies and late 19th-century American literature. [See Prepub Alert, 8/17/15.]--Erica Swenson Danowitz, Delaware Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Media, PA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.