Early Promise, Late Reward: A Biography of Helen Hooven Santmyer

A small town girl from the Midwest, Helen was educated at Wellesley College during World War I and was active in the women’s suffrage movement. She sought a publishing career in New York City in the 1920’s when most women pursued marriage and family life. She attended Oxford University in England as one of the first female Rhodes Scholars. Returning to the United States with her first book published and a new graduate degree in literature, she felt she was on the verge of long-sought fame and fortune, only to be met by the onset of the Great Depression. It wasn’t until she was eighty-eight years old that the media blitz descended on Xenia, Ohio and the world learned of the old lady who wrote a book. Helen Santmyer’s story is a great example of the challenges and conflicts faced by ambitious women in the early 20th century. Born in 1895, Ms. Santmyer lived, studied, and worked through World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.