Calisher, Hortense (b. 1911)

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Calisher, Hortense (b. 1911)

American fiction writer. Born Hortense Calisher, Dec 20, 1911, in New York, NY; dau. of Hedwig (Lichstern) Calisher (German-Jewish émigré) and Joseph Henry Calisher (Jewish manufacturer); Barnard College, BA, 1932; m. Heaton Bennet Heffelfinger (engineer), 1935 (div. 1958); m. Curtis Harnack, 1959; children: (1st m.) Bennet and Peter Heffelfinger.

Published 1st short-story collection, In the Absence of Angels (1951); taught at colleges throughout nation; published more than 15 vols. of fiction, including False Entries (1961), The New Yorkers (1969), Queenie (1971), Herself (1972), The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher (1975), On Keeping Women (1977), Mysteries of Motion (1973) and In the Palace of the Movie King (1993).

See also memoir, Kissing Cousins: A Memory (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988); Kathleen Snodgrass, The Fiction of Hortense Calisher (U. of Delaware Press, 1993); and Women in World History.