Kathleen Norris facts for kids
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Kathleen Thompson Norris (born July 16, 1880 – died January 18, 1966) was a very popular American writer. She wrote many novels and newspaper columns.
For almost 50 years, from 1911 to 1959, she was one of the most widely read and highest-paid female writers in the United States. Kathleen Norris wrote 93 novels, and many of them became best sellers. Her stories often appeared in popular magazines like The Atlantic, The American Magazine, and Ladies' Home Journal. She used her stories to share important ideas about family, the value of marriage, the importance of motherhood, and helping others.
Contents
Life and Early 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 child, she became the head of her large family and had to find work.
She first worked in a department store. Then she worked in an accounting office and later at the Mechanic's Institute Library. In 1905, she started studying creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley. She began writing short stories.
The San Francisco Call newspaper hired her in September 1906 to write about society events. There, she met Charles Gilman Norris. They fell in love. Charles moved to New York to work as an art editor for The American Magazine. After eight months of writing letters every day, Kathleen joined him in New York. They got married in April 1909.
Becoming a Famous Writer
Kathleen started writing short stories again. They began appearing in newspapers and magazines in 1910. Charles became her literary agent for life. He also helped manage their home as Kathleen became more and more successful as a writer.
Soon after becoming a mother, she wrote her first novel, Mother. It started as a short story in The American Magazine in 1911. A publisher asked her to make it longer. The book became very popular across the country. Even President Theodore Roosevelt praised it for celebrating large families. Her 1914 novel Saturday's Child also received a positive review from writer William Dean Howells. He noted how well she understood different social classes.
Social Causes and Public Life
Norris was involved in many social causes. These included women's suffrage (the right for women to vote), Prohibition (making alcohol illegal), and pacifism (the belief that war is wrong). She also supported organizations that helped children and people in need.
In 1941, Kathleen Norris was pictured at an America First Committee rally. This group wanted the United States to stay out of World War II. The photo shows her with her arm outstretched. There has been discussion about whether this gesture was a Nazi salute. Some people at the time used a similar gesture, called the "Bellamy salute," when saying the Pledge of Allegiance. However, this gesture was usually done with the palm up. Contemporary sources said Norris's salute looked "closer to the Nazi salute" than to other ways of saluting the American flag.
Books to Films and Radio
Many of Kathleen Norris's novels were made into films. Some examples include Butterfly (1924), My Best Girl (1927), and Change of Heart (1934).
Some of her novels were also adapted for a radio series called By Kathleen Norris. This made her the first nationally famous writer to have her works broadcast daily on the radio. The show was on CBS from October 1939 to September 1941.
Kathleen Norris died on January 18, 1966, in San Francisco. She was 85 years old.
Family Life
In 1919, Kathleen and Charles Norris moved their family to a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Saratoga, California. This ranch was next to the Villa Montalvo estate. Later, they built a house in Palo Alto and spent their summers at the ranch.
Kathleen's sister, Teresa, died in 1919. Teresa had married William Rose Benét and had three children. Kathleen fought to become the guardian of her two nieces and one nephew: Rosemary, Kathleen Anne, and James Benét.
Her granddaughter, also named Kathleen Norris (1935–1967), was the second wife of Prince Andrew Romanov.
Images for kids
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Sen. Burton Wheeler, Charles Lindbergh, and Norris at an America First rally in 1941.
