EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Michigan State University Press and the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame will host a reception on Thursday, Dec. 2, to celebrate the publication of a posthumous novel by Harriette Simpson Arnow, "Between the Flowers."
The reception will take place from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, 213 West Main St., in downtown Lansing. The Office of the Provost, the College of Arts and Letters and the Center for Great Lakes Culture are co-sponsoring the event.
"Between the Flowers" is Arnow's second novel. Her first, "The Dollmaker," was made into a movie starring Jane Fonda and chronicles the story of people leaving their homeland of Kentucky in search of jobs in Detroit automobile factories. "Between the Flowers," the story of an idealistic young mountain woman married to an abusive man, was written in the 1930s but unpublished until now.
"Being the publisher of Harriette Simpson Arnow's unpublished second novel is a special thrill," said Fred Bohm, director of the MSU Press. "We hope that our edition of "Between the Flowers," released six decades after it was written, will help to reposition Arnow in America's literary canon."
The MSU Press began a connection with Arnow's works in the early 1990s when MSU professor Haeja Chung approached the Press with her collection, "Harriette Simpson Arnow: Critical Essays." The Press continued the relationship with Arnow's works by re-issuing Arnow's previously out-of-print novel, "Hunter's Horn." The MSU Press plans to release other Arnow works, including "Mountain Path" and a collection of her short stories.
Although Arnow wrote about life in the hills of Kentucky, she lived most of her life in Michigan on a farm near Ann Arbor. Her husband, Harold, was a reporter for The Detroit News. Arnow died on March 21, 1986 and was buried at her family farm in Pulaski County, Ky.
Arnow was the first 20th century writer inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. She was inducted in 1983, the same year she received the Mark Twain Award from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature.
For more information on the event, call (517) 355-9543 or e-mail reaumej@msu.edu.