Eliza Calvert Hall (Text Only)

	Eliza Calvert Hall, Author of "Aunt Jane of Kentucky"
	Like many American "local color" writers, Eliza Calvert Hall is nearly forgotten today, but at the turn of the 20th century her tales of rural western Kentucky and her fictional storyteller "Aunt Jane" enjoyed great popularity. Hall's talent was compared to that of Sarah Orne Jewett, Elizabeth Gaskell and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. "Eliza Calvert Hall" was the pen name of Mrs. Eliza (Lida) Calvert Obenchain (1856-1935), a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky. She was not only an author of fiction but a poet, essayist, folk art historian, and ardent advocate of suffrage and women's rights. As she struggled with the timeless problems of work and motherhood, her attempts to heed both the call of her art and her duty to family often left her anxious and frustrated. The fictional world she created, with serene "Aunt Jane" at its center, was therefore all the more remarkable.
	Click here for Eliza Calvert Hall Biography Click here for list of published work Click here for information about "Aunt Jane" Click here for information about the Kentucky Building collection
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