Olivia Howard Dunbar

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Olivia Howard Dunbar (1873-January 6, 1953) [1] was an American short story writer, journalist and biographer, best known today for her ghost fiction. [2]

Contents

Life

Dunbar was born in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts in 1873. She graduated from Smith College in 1894, [3] after which she worked in newspaper journalism. She worked for the New York World during which time she penned an exposé on Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science. [4] As a short story writer and critic, she was published in many of the popular periodicals of her time, including Harper's and The Dial . Dunbar wrote several ghost stories, as well as a 1905 essay, "The Decay of the Ghost in Fiction", defending the subgenre. [5] Dunbar was active in the women's suffrage movement, and her work has been noted to contain feminist themes. [2] She married the poet Ridgely Torrence in 1914. Dunbar died in 1953. Her work has been anthologized by Dorothy Scarborough and Jessica Amanda Salmonson. [2] [6]

Selected works

Short fiction

Novels

References

  1. ↑ "OLIVIA H. DUNBAR, 79, BIOGRAPHER, ESSAYIST". New York Times . January 7, 1953. p. 31. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 Salmonson, Jessica Amanda (1989). What Did Miss Darrington See? : An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Fiction . New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York. ISBN   9781558610057.
  3. ↑ "Story of the Week: The Shell of Sense". Library of America. September 21, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  4. ↑ Howard Dunbar, Olivia (May 15, 1901). ""The Real Mrs. Eddy. "Mother" Of Christian Science"". New York World.
  5. ↑ Olivia Howard Dunbar, "The Decay of the Ghost in Fiction". In Jason Colavito, ed.,A Hideous Bit of Morbidity: An Anthology of Horror Criticism from the Enlightenment to World War I. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. (pp. 330-336). ISBN   978-0786469093 (Reprinted from The Dial, June 1, 1905, p. 377-380.)
  6. ↑ Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Scare tactics : supernatural fiction by American women.New York : Fordham University Press, 2008. ISBN   0823229858 (p. 106).

Further reading

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