Zona Gale (1874–1938,) later Zona Gale Breese, was an American novelist, storywriter, and dramatist. Her Miss Lulu Bett (1920) established her as a realistic chronicler of Midwestern village life.
Born in Portage, Wisconsin, Gale graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1895 and received a master’s degree in literature from Wisconsin (1899.) She was a newspaper reporter for the Evening Wisconsin and then the Milwaukee Journal and later Evening World in New York City.
Gale began writing sentimental romances, as in her first novel, Romance Island (1906.) She was scorned and disliked for increasing pacifism and feminism but gained recognition for her novel Birth (1918,) which was dramatized in 1924 as Mr. Pitt.
Gale found fame with her novel Miss Lulu Bett (1920,) and her dramatization won her a Pulitzer (1921.) She later turned to the mysticism of George Gurdjieff, which strengthened her work, as in the autobiographical Portage, Wisconsin (1928,) the story collection Yellow Gentians and Blue (1927,) and the novel Papa La Fleur (1933.)
Gale was a suffragist, an activist, and a liberal Democrat, becoming an avid supporter of Robert La Follette’s Progressive Party. She was against racial prejudice and promoted improved means of communication among races.
August Derleth wrote Gale’s biography, Still, Small Voice (1940.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Zona Gale
I don’t know a better preparation for life than a love of poetry and a good digestion.
—Zona Gale
Topics: Preparation, Poetry, Poets
The world consists almost exclusively of people who are one sort and who behave like another sort.
—Zona Gale
Topics: Hypocrisy
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
Dorothy Bryant American Novelist
Joyce Carol Oates American Novelist
Zora Neale Hurston American Novelist
Thomas Wolfe American Novelist
Carson McCullers American Novelist
Evelyn Scott American Novelist
Betty Smith American Author
Carrie Fisher American Actress
Marjorie Kellogg American Author