Jane Addams: A Writer's Life

Jane Addams, a Writer's Life is a reexamination of the renowned reformer as an imaginative writer. Jane Addams is best known for her groundbreaking social work at Hull-House, the force of her efforts toward Progressive political and social reform, and the bravery of her commitment to pacifism, for which she received the Nobel Peace Prize. Here, Joslin moves beyond this history to present Addams as a literary figure.Katherine Joslin examines Addams's rejection of scholarly writing in favor of a synthesis of fictional and analytical prose that appealed to a wider audience. From there, Joslin traces Addams's style from her early collaborative works, Philanthropy and Social Progress and Hull-House Maps and Papers, influenced by Florence Kelley, to her modernist and experimental last books, The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House and My Friend, Julia Lathrop, placing Addams in the context of other Chicago writers, including Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, Harriet Monroe, Frank Norris and James T. Farrell.