Kathleen Norris


Kathleen Thompson Norris was an American novelist and newspaper columnist. She was one of the most widely read and highest paid female writers in the United States for nearly fifty years, from 1911 to 1959. Norris was a prolific writer who wrote 93 novels, many of which became best sellers. Her stories appeared frequently in the popular press of the day, including Atlantic, The American Magazine, McClure's, Everybody's, Ladies' Home Journal and Woman's Home Companion. Norris used her fiction to promote family and moralistic values, such as the sanctity of marriage, the nobility of motherhood, and the importance of service to others.

Life and career

Kathleen Thompson Norris was born in San Francisco, California on July 16, 1880. Her parents were Josephine and James Alden Thompson. When she was 19 both her parents died. As the oldest sibling she became effectively the head of a large family and had to work. Initially, she found employment in a department store, which was soon followed by work in an accounting office and then the Mechanic's Institute Library. In 1905, she enrolled in a creative writing program at the University of California, Berkeley and began writing short stories. The San Francisco Call, which had published a few of her stories, hired her to write a society column in September 1906. In the course of that work she met Charles Gilman Norris, and they soon fell in love. He moved to New York to be art editor of The American Magazine. After eight months of daily correspondence and some improvements in her family's financial situation, she joined him there and they were married in April 1909.
She resumed writing short stories, which began to appear in newspapers and then magazines starting in 1910. Charles took on a lifelong role as Kathleen's literary agent, and also took care of many household management roles as she became increasingly successful as a writer. Shortly after becoming a new mother, she wrote her first novel, Mother. It started as a short story in The American Magazine in 1911. A publisher asked her to expand it into a novelette, which became a national sensation and earned the praise of Theodore Roosevelt for its celebration of large families. A devout Catholic, she wrote the book in part as a commentary against birth control, which was rapidly influencing women's attitudes about motherhood. Her 1914 novel Saturday's Child received a positive, lengthy review from William Dean Howells, who remarked on her sensitivity to class issues.
Norris became involved in various social causes, including women's suffrage, Prohibition, pacifism, and organizations to benefit children and the poor.
Norris is pictured at an America First Committee rally in 1941 at Madison Square Garden giving what appears to be a Nazi salute. In fact, the photo was taken early that year in another location. There is controversy over whether she was giving the Nazi salute. People reciting the pledge of allegiance sometimes made a gesture with an outstretched arm and the palm up, as opposed to the Nazi salute with the palm down. Contemporary sources described Norris's salute as "closer to the Nazi salute" than to accepted methods of saluting the American flag. At this rally, which took place in May 1941, Norris is pictured with Charles A. Lindbergh and Senator Burton K. Wheeler.
Many of her novels were made into films, including Butterfly, My Best Girl, The Callahans and the Murphys, Passion Flower, and Change of Heart.
Some of Norris's novels were adapted for a radio series, By Kathleen Norris, making her "the first nationally famous writer to have her works brought to radio listeners as a daily serial program." The program, produced by Phillips Lord, was broadcast on CBS October 9, 1939 – September 26, 1941.
Kathleen Thompson Norris died January 18, 1966, in San Francisco at the home of her son Dr. Frank Norris. She was 85.

Family

In 1919 the family moved to a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Saratoga, California, adjacent to the Villa Montalvo estate of James Duval Phelan. They later built a house in Palo Alto and spent summers at the ranch. Kathleen's sister Teresa, who had married William Rose Benét and borne three children, died in 1919. Kathleen fought for and eventually obtained guardianship of the two nieces and a nephew: Rosemary, Kathleen Anne and James Benét.
Her granddaughter Kathleen Norris was the second wife of Prince Andrew Romanov.

Selected bibliography