Ferber, Edna (1887–1968), Michigan‐born novelist and playwright, resided in New York City. After her first novel,
Dawn O'Hara (1911), she wrote the short stories about the business woman Emma McChesney, collected in
Roast Beef, Medium (1913),
Personality Plus (1914), and
Emma McChesney and Co. (1915). Besides other collections of stories, including
Mother Knows Best (1927), she was the author of successful novels:
Fanny Herself (1917);
The Girls (1921), a study of three generations of women;
So Big (1924, Pulitzer Prize), about Selina, a truck gardener, and her sacrifices for her son Dirk;
Show Boat (1926), the romantic story of Magnolia Hawks, leading lady of her father's showboat troupe, who marries Gaylord Ravenal, a gambler, and after he deserts her becomes a successful singer;
Cimarron (1930), about the 1889 land rush in Oklahoma and the region's later development;
American Beauty (1931), about Polish immigrants in Connecticut;
Come and Get It (1935), about the Wisconsin logging industry;
Saratoga Trunk (1941), about a Creole adventuress and a cowboy gambler at a Saratoga (N.Y.) spa in the 1880s;
Great Son (1945), about four generations of a Seattle family;
Giant (1950), set in Texas; and
Ice Palace (1958), set in modern Alaska but presenting its past too.
Show Boat was made into a musical play ( Kern and Hammerstein, 1927); and with George S. Kaufman she wrote plays, including
Minick (1924), based on one of her stories;
The Royal Family (1927), lampooning the Barrymores;
Dinner at Eight (1932); and
Stage Door (1936).
A Peculiar Treasure (1939) and
A Kind of Magic (1963) are autobiographies.
