Barren Ground

Glascow, Ellen: - It's Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was an American author who lived from April 22, 1873, to November 21, 1945. Her book in This Our Life won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942. Many people liked the 20 novels and short stories she released. Glasgow was born and raised in Virginia and wrote realistically about how things were changing in the South at the time. This was different from the idealistic escapes that were common in Southern writing after Reconstruction. Glasgow was born on April 22, 1873, in Richmond, Virginia, to Anne Jane Gholson (1831-1893) and her husband, Francis Thomas Glasgow. She grew up in a way that was different from other women from her wealthy class. Glasgow went to school at home in Richmond because she had bad health (later found to be chronic heart disease). She got the equivalent of a high school diploma, but she also read a lot of philosophy, social and political theory, and European and British literature. They got married on July 14, 1853, and lived through the American Civil War. They had ten children together, with Ellen being the second-to-last. Her mother, Anne Gholson, had what was called "nervous invalidism" at the time. Some thought this was because she had raised ten children. Glasgow also had "nervous invalidism" all through her life.