author
Ada Woodruff Anderson
1860–1956
A Pacific Northwest novelist with deep roots in early Washington, she wrote stories shaped by frontier memory, regional landscapes, and the people who lived close to them. Her best-known books include The Heart of the Red Firs, The Strain of White, and The Rim of the Desert.
2 Audiobooks
The Rim of the Desert
by Ada Woodruff Anderson
The Heart of the Red Firs: A Story of the Pacific Northwest
by Ada Woodruff Anderson
About the author
Born in San Francisco in July 1860, she spent part of her early childhood in Hong Kong and Shanghai before moving to Tumwater, Washington, in 1864. She later attended high school in San Francisco and returned to Washington around 1875, giving her a life that bridged coastal cities, overseas travel, and the developing Northwest.
She became known as a Pacific Northwest novelist, and surviving archival descriptions identify The Heart of the Red Firs, The Strain of White, and The Rim of the Desert among her notable works. Her fiction is closely associated with the landscapes and communities of Washington and the wider western region.
Archival sources also note that she married in 1885 and lived into 1956. Today she is remembered as a regional writer whose work preserves a strong sense of place and an early literary view of the Northwest.