A Group of Their Own: College Writing Courses and American Women Writers, 1880-1940

Katherine H. Adams

Feb 2001 · State University of New York Press

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A Group of Their Own is the fascinating story of the first generations of women who went to college to learn to be writers and then launched their careers writing poetry and prose. This unprecedented group included Elizabeth Bishop, Ruby Black, Pearl Buck, Emma Bugbee, Willa Cather, Zona Gale, Mildred Gilman, Zora Neale Hurston, Mary McCarthy, Marianne Moore, Eudora Welty, and Margaret Walker.

This group was all about firsts. These women were among the first to attend college where they took a new array of writing classes in which students worked together in a workshop environment and extended this model of collaboration to campus clubs and publications. When they left college, they continued their new working methods by initiating and joining in a variety of activities such as mentorships, clubs, community theaters, and summer writing workshops. This expanded experience enabled them to move outside the restricted definitions of women's career paths and writing projects, ultimately changing the definition of American writer and American writing.

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Katherine H. Adams is the Audrey and William Hutchinson Professor of English at Loyola University. She is the author of a number of books, including A History of Professional Writing Instruction in American Colleges: Years of Acceptance, Growth, and Doubt; Progressive Politics and the Training of America's Persuaders; and (with Michael L. Keene) Research and Writing Across the Disciplines and Easy Access: The Reference Handbook for Writers, Second Edition.