Gwen Bristow

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Date: 1994
Document Type: Biography
Length: 912 words
Content Level: (Level 4)
Lexile Measure: 1200L

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About this Person
Born: September 16, 1903 in Marion, South Carolina, United States
Died: August 16, 1980
Nationality: American
Occupation: Novelist
Updated:Jan. 1, 1994
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History takes precedence over romance in the novels of Gwen Bristow. Her plots are detailed and neatly resolved and her characters are sharply drawn, if with broad strokes; but she reserves her greatest skill for the unfolding of American history as displayed around the lives of the people who created it.

For the most part, Bristow's novels follow a central female character through a tumultuous period of America's development. Her Plantation Trilogy (which includes Deep Summer, The Handsome Road and This Side of Glory) reads like a single volume with three heroines. They are united by the location of neighbouring plantations in Louisiana but separated in time from the 1700s to the 1920s. These three relatively short works form a unified whole about equal in length to the longer single novels like Jubilee Trail or Calico Palace. Each of the three sections of the trilogy stands alone quite effectively, but only when taken as a whole do they give the author's characteristic overview of history. Tomorrow Is Forever, a shorter work published at the height of America's involvement in World War II, is her only contemporary novel. Even so, it flashes back to World War I through the life of Elizabeth, the heroine. There is less emphasis upon the flow of history in this work and more upon the examination of war and its effect on men and nations. The overall effect is more that of propaganda piece than historical novel, and Tomorrow Is Forever as a whole seems atypical of Bristow's body of work.

If fault can be found with Bristow's plots it lies in the foreshadowing of pivotal events in the characters' lives, often through undue emphasis on minor details. For example, when Loren in Calico Palace warns a child not to sit on a dirty nail the unconscious focus on this minor transaction predicts Loren's death from an injury received from the same nail. At that point in the narrative Loren has served his purpose in the heroine's life and his departure seems ordained. On a larger scale, the true identity of Mr Kessler in Tomorrow Is Forever is predictable, based on the emphasis given to Elizabeth's special relationship with her first husband, Arthur. The tragedies and triumphs experienced by the characters follow relatively obvious patterns with few surprises for the reader. The stories are quite adequate, however, when played out against such exciting times and settings.

Bristow's characters suffer somewhat in comparison to the breadth of her historical knowledge and her skill at developing an era. The heroines of all the novels are nearly identical, being described as attractive rather than beautiful and wilful in a style out of keeping with their times. Additionally each is drawn as a loner who craves love and a sense of belonging. The secondary female characters are often `bad girls' and Bristow lavishes more attention on them, sometimes to the detriment of the heroine. In Calico Palace she unexpectedly switches the point of view several times from the beleaguered heroine Kendra to the delightfully wicked Marny. The men, the putative makers of history, are divided between charming, weak connivers who appear early in the heroine's life and strong, capable men who form bonds with her after she has proven that she can take care of herself. In some works, these two types are represented by a single hero with both strong and weak traits. The most interesting aspect of the characters in all the novels is how they are changed by history even as they live it. In Celia Garth the Tories and the rebels trade social status and power with their fluctuating success in war. In the Plantation Trilogy some farmers become aristocrats and some become `poor white trash' depending upon chance and personal choices.

The novelistic portions of these volumes are pleasant, palatable garments for the real focus: American history. While the reader is being entertained, there is also instruction. The periods that Bristow selects are exciting enough in themselves; her eye for just the right detail and her breakneck pace make history a living entity guaranteed to capture her audience.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Nationality: American. Born: Marion, South Carolina, 16 September 1903. Education: Anderson College, South Carolina; Judson College, Marion, Alabama, A.B. 1924; Columbia University School of Journalism, New York, 1924-25. Family: Married Bruce Manning in 1929 (died). Career: Journalist, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 1925-34. Died: 16 August 1980.

WORKS

Romance and Historical PublicationsNovels (series: Plantation Trilogy)

  • Plantation Trilogy. New York, Crowell, 1962.
  • Deep Summer. New York, Crowell, and London, Heinemann, 1937.
  • The Handsome Road. New York, Crowell, and London, Heinemann, 1938.
  • This Side of Glory. New York, Crowell, and London, Heinemann, 1940.
  • Tomorrow Is Forever. New York, Crowell, 1943; London, Heinemann, 1944.
  • Jubilee Trail. New York, Crowell, 1950; London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1953.
  • Celia Garth. New York, Crowell, 1959; London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1960.
  • Calico Palace. New York, Crowell, 1970; London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1971.
Other PublicationsNovels with Bruce Manning
  • The Invisible Host. New York, Mystery League, 1930; as The Ninth Guest, New York, Popular Library, 1975.
  • The Gutenberg Murders. New York, Mystery League, 1931.
  • Two and Two Make Twenty-Two. New York, Mystery League, 1932.
  • The Mardi Gras Murders. New York, Mystery League, 1932.
Poetry
  • The Alien and Other Poems. Boston, Badger, 1926.
Other
  • Gwen Bristow: A Self Portrait. New York, Crowell, 1940.
  • Golden Dreams. New York, Lippincott and Crowell, 1980.

Source Citation

Source Citation   

Gale Document Number: GALE|K2404000056