Frances Nimmo Greene

"A Woman of the Century"

Frances Nimmo Greene (April 5, 1867 – December 9, 1937) was an American educator and author of novels and children's literature. Three of her novels attracted favorable attention and were adapted into films: The Devil to Pay (1920), One Clear Call (1922), and The Right of the Strongest (1924). She also wrote more than 50 short stories which were published in magazines of national repute.

Early life and education

Frances Nimmo Greene was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, April 5, 1867. She was known to the public as "Dixie."

Her father, Thomas Finley Greene (1829–1905), was a clergyman, and her mother was Virginia F. Owen (1828–1905); they married in 1854. She was descended through her father from an old South Carolina family, and through her mother from Virginia ancestry. Her mother's family had literary tastes for several generations.

Greene had five older siblings: Annie (1855–1923), John (1857–1859), Kate (1859–1870), Robert (1862–1926), and Mary (1865–1918). The Greenes were a "literary" family from their nursery days. The siblings scribbled as children, and all, more or less, continued to write in later years, but Frances showed from the first her talent. She read widely, and she inherited from her mother a passionate love for Virginia and its history-a love that evolved significantly in her work.

Greene received her education in Tuscaloosa Female College.

Career

Almost immediately after leaving school, she began to teach. While teaching in a mining town in north Alabama, she first conceived the idea of writing sketches for publication. Her first attempt, "Yankees in Dixie," was promptly accepted by the Philadelphia Times.

Her talent was recognized from the first by editors, and their encouragement stimulated her desire to write. She contributed to that paper many letters on southern affairs. She also wrote for the Birmingham Age-Herald and other southern papers. Besides writing in prose, she sometimes wrote verse.

She resigned as a teacher to become assistant in the Department of Archives and History, in Montgomery, Alabama. During that time, her enthusiastic spirit and vigorous personality roused a very necessary interest in the library conditions of the state. In recognition of her ability, she was elected secretary of the Alabama Library Association, and later director of the Birmingham Public Library. Always, though, in the midst of these activities, the literary career called her, and during her stay in Birmingham, she became an editorial writer for The Birmingham News.

Greene's first novel, Into the Night, published by the Crowells, was a story of modern New Orleans, dealing with a Mafia mystery. It was her first sustained piece of fiction, and its success was immediate and flattering. Other novels, The Right of the Strongest, One Clear Call, The Devil to Pay, followed in quick succession, all published by Scribner's. All her fiction was popular. The field of the novel, limitless as it is, never engaged Greene's entire interest. It was only one phase of her literary expression. She also wrote books for young people" King Arthur's Court, and With Spurs of Gold.

Versatile as she was -novelist, playwright, journalist, poet- the phase of her work in literature that stood out pre-eminently was that of her books for children. In these books, her determination to develop a higher national consciousness in the mind of the child becomes clear. This vision was intensified by the years of the Civil War, as the titles of other published books showed: My Country's Voice, America First, and American Ideals.

She was already most favorably known in the field of children's literature by King Arthur's Court, a book which was favorably received as soon as it was published, and which held its place with honor for more than a decade. Through this book, thousands of children became familiar with the Arthurian legends. The popularity of this book was so great that Greene and her cousin, Dolly Williams Kirk, whose poems had magazine publication, brought out in collaboration, a volume of stories of chivalry, With Spurs of Gold. This book received high praise from readers, and was used in college courses.

Viewed as a synthetic whole, and taken in conjunction with her earlier books on chivalry, the scope of her series of readers, American Ideals, was of an educative value beyond anything ever done before in this line. This series, published by Scribner's, contained in the 'Colonial' volume, a chapter, "Virginia and the Ideal of Civil Liberty", which presented Virginia's place in history.

Later, she was engaged in collaborating with her sister, Mrs. Annie Greene Brown, on a volume of short stories.

Some of Greene's novels were adapted into films. Months of negotiation were required before Louis B. Mayer obtained the film rights to the Greene book, One Clear Call, as arrangements had already been made for its production on the theater stage. A record price secured the dramatic rights to the book for the screen, which was adapted to the screen by Bess Meredyth, and was released in 1922 The Right of the Strongest was adapted to the screen by Doty Hobart, and released in 1924. It is a drama of the Alabama hillbillies and their struggle to retain their rights as squatters.

Later life

In 1927, Greene was teaching short story writing in Birmingham. She delivered an address on behalf of the Democratic ticket in 1928.

Personal life

Greene was reared by Methodist parents in the Methodist church, but in Birmingham, she joined the Protestant Episcopal church.

Greene divided her time between New York City and her brother's home in Montgomery.

Frances Nimmo Greene died in Birmingham, Alabama, December 9, 1937.

Selected publications

• King Arthur Court (Ginn and Co., Boston, 1901)
• With spurs of gold; heroes of chivalry and their deeds (Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1905)
• Into the night (Scribner's, New York, 1909)
• The Right of the Strongest (Scribner's, New York, 1913)
• One Clear Call (Scribner's, New York, 1914)
• The devil to pay (Scribner's, New York, 1917)
• America First (Scribner's, New York, 1918)
• My Country's Voice (Scribner's, New York, 1918)
• American Ideals (Scribner's, New York, 1920-1922)

Filmography

Films based on Greene's novels:

• The Devil to Pay (1920)
• One Clear Call (1922)
• The Right of the Strongest (1924)

External links

• Works related to Woman of the Century/Frances Nimmo Greene at Wikisource
• Works by or about Frances Nimmo Greene at the Internet Archive