Stella Dallas - Paperback

by Olive Higgins Prouty (Author)

This pulp classic of motherhood and money introduced the immortal character portrayed on film by Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Midler--"a feminist gem" (Michael Bronski).

An ambitious woman from working-class roots, Stella sets her sights on marrying rich--and hits a bullseye. But her unshakable crudeness becomes too much for her husband. When he leaves her, she keeps their daughter Laurel. And now Stella sets her sights one again--this time, on giving her daughter the life she could never achieve for herself.

Author Biography

Olive Higgins Prouty (1882--1974), like many of her characters a wealthy Bostonian, was the author of ten novels, including Stella Dallas (1923), which became the basis for three films and a long-running radio serial. A graduate of Smith College, Prouty endowed a writer's scholarship at Smith that was received by Sylvia Plath, who later portrayed her patron unflatteringly in The Bell Jar.