38 Facts About Gertrude Atherton

Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton was an American writer.

Gertrude Atherton's bestselling novel Black Oxen was made into a silent movie of the same name.

Gertrude Atherton's father had become a prominent citizen in San Francisco as a tobacco merchant, although he originally hailed from Stonington, Connecticut.

Gertrude Atherton's parents separated in 1860 when she was two years old, and she was raised by her maternal grandfather, Stephen Franklin, a devout Presbyterian and a relative of Benjamin Franklin.

Gertrude Atherton attended St Mary's Hall high school in Benicia, California, and, briefly, the Sayre School in Lexington, Kentucky.

Gertrude Atherton moved back to California to live with her grandfather and mother after her aunt refused to house her any longer because of her rebelliousness.

Gertrude Atherton became more interested in daughter Gertrude, and after she accepted his sixth proposal, they eloped on February 15,1876.

Gertrude Atherton was left alone with their daughter Muriel and needed to support herself.

Gertrude Atherton later told an interviewer that the books that had influenced her the most were Hippolyte Taine's "History of English Literature" and the books of Herbert Spencer.

Gertrude Atherton traveled to London, and eventually returned to California.

In 1889, Gertrude Atherton went to Paris at the invitation of her sister-in-law Alejandra Rathbone.

William Sharp wrote in The Spectator praising her fiction and would later invite Gertrude Atherton to stay with him and his wife, Elizabeth, in South Hampstead.

In London, Gertrude Atherton had the opportunity through Jane Wilde to meet her son, Oscar Wilde.

Gertrude Atherton recalled in her memoir Adventures of a Novelist that she made an excuse to avoid the meeting because she thought he was physically repulsive.

Gertrude Atherton soon learned that Churchill was disappointed that she did not return the compliment; she was not aware of his writing.

Gertrude Atherton returned to California in 1890 following the death of her grandfather, Franklin, and her mother-in-law Dominga Gertrude Atherton, and she resumed care of Muriel.

When Kate Field remarked on California writers' neglect of the picturesque and romantic old Spanish life of the state, Gertrude Atherton explored the history and culture of Spanish California in Monterey, San Juan Bautista, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara.

Gertrude Atherton became a member of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association.

Gertrude Atherton wrote The Doomswoman in 1892, and it was published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine before being published in book form in 1893.

Gertrude Atherton was not pleased with this comparison because Jackson was not from California.

Gertrude Atherton's distaste came from their belittlement of the Western United States and its authors and the fact they did not accept Bierce's work.

Gertrude Atherton next wrote Patience Sparhawk and Her Times, A Novel, but it proved to be too controversial for publication.

Gertrude Atherton continued to write, writing book reviews for Oliver Fry's Vanity Fair, and even completed a book-length version of "The Randolphs of Redwood" while staying in Haworth.

In 1898, Gertrude Atherton completed The Californians, her first novel set in the post-Spanish era.

Gertrude Atherton traveled to Rouen and wrote American Wives and English Husbands, set in contemporary time.

Gertrude Atherton completed The Valiant Runaways, an adventure novel for boys that dealt with the Spanish Mexican attempt to civilize California.

Gertrude Atherton is best remembered for her California Series, several novels and short stories dealing with the social history of California.

Gertrude Atherton was an early feminist well acquainted with the plight of women.

Gertrude Atherton was often compared to contemporary authors such as Henry James and Edith Wharton.

Gertrude Atherton presided in her last years over the San Francisco branch of PEN.

Gertrude Atherton was a personal friend of Senator James Duval Phelan and his nephew, the philanthropist Noel Sullivan, and often was a guest at Phelan's estate, Villa Montalvo.

Charlotte S McClure in a Dictionary of Literary Biography essay said that Atherton "redefined women's potential and presented a psychological drama of a woman's quest for identity and for a life purpose and happiness within and beyond her procreative function".

Gertrude Atherton said that Patience Sparhawk was Atherton's "first significant novel".

Mrs Wharton, with some difficulty, it would appear, has learned to write; Mrs Gertrude Atherton was born with a facility for telling stories.

Gertrude Atherton was a suffragist who did not believe in the use of militancy to further the cause.

In 1919, Gertrude Atherton wrote an article for The New York Times, which condemned both the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Americans who sympathized with it.

Gertrude Atherton's autobiography, Adventures of a Novelist, is an account of her life and the people she knew, including Ambrose Bierce and James Phelan.

Gertrude Atherton is buried in Cypress Lawn cemetery in Colma, California.