Gale, Zona (1874–1938), Wisconsin author, known for her short stories in the local‐color tradition, collected in such volumes as
Friendship Village (1908),
Yellow Gentians and Blue (1927), and
Bridal Pond (1930). She won a Pulitzer Prize for her dramatization of her novel
Miss Lulu Bett (1920), a study of a woman repressed by the bleak life of the Middle West. Other novels include
Birth (1918), dramatized as
Mr. Pitt (1924), the story of a similarly repressed man, whose simple honesty is scorned by the wife who deserts him and the son who is ashamed of his insignificance;
Faint Perfume (1923), a character study of a poor relation;
Preface to a Life (1926), dealing with the frustrated life of a businessman;
Borgia (1929), the story of a morbid girl who thinks herself a modern Lucrezia Borgia; and
Papa La Fleur (1933), the story of a country girl whose ideas of liberty for the younger generation hurt the feelings of both her father and her sweetheart.
The Secret Way (1921) is a book of poems,
Magna (1939) is a posthumously published novelette, and
Portage, Wisconsin (1928) completes the autobiographical narrative begun in
When I Was a Little Girl (1913).
Still Small Voice (1940), a biography, was written by August Derleth.
