Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice

Born in Shelbyville, Kentucky, in 1870, Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice became one of the best-known American authors of the early 20th century. She was raised in Louisville, and her experiences doing charitable work there helped shape the compassionate, observant style that readers came to love.

Her breakthrough came with Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch in 1901, a hugely popular novel that was later adapted for the stage and screen. The book’s mix of humor, heart, and close attention to everyday hardship made it stand out, and it remains the work most closely associated with her.

Rice continued to write novels, short fiction, and other works across the following decades. She died in 1942, but her writing still offers a vivid picture of turn-of-the-century life and a generous, human view of the people at its center.