An Hour with Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Brent L. Kendrick

Описание: An Hour with Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Brent L. Kendrick

Freeman scholar Brent L. Kendrick, who collected Freeman’s letters in The Infant Sphinx: Collected Letters of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1985) gave a paper entitled “Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: The Biographer’s Challenge.”

He writes:

Writing a biography is never easy—especially when the author leaves no children, no will, no literary executor, and a trail of letters that were often burned by well-meaning friends. In this talk, I’ll explore the biographer’s core challenges—navigating truth and silence, revisiting earlier narratives, and resisting the urge to invent what history has hidden.

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman presents all of these challenges—and then some. I’ll trace my long engagement with her legacy, beginning with The Infant Sphinx (1985), continuing through my 2023 edition of Green Mountain Stories, and now culminating in Dolly: Life and Letters of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, a forthcoming two-volume biography. Divided into The New England Years (1852–1901) and The New Jersey Years (1902–1930), this new biography reexamines Freeman’s life geographically, emotionally, and artistically.

We’ll consider how new digital tools, uncovered letters, and even past biographers shape this effort—and how, at last, we can offer a fuller, more complex portrait of a woman whose literary reach was far greater than the “regional” label suggests.