author
Ednah Aiken
1872–1960
A California writer and playwright with a lively public voice, she moved easily between fiction, drama, editing, and civic life. Her work reflects the literary and cultural energy of the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
The river
by Ednah Aiken
About the author
Born in San Francisco in 1872, she became an American writer, editor, clubwoman, and playwright closely associated with the Bay Area. She studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and built a varied career that reached across novels, plays, and editorial work.
Her books included The Ever Young and The Hinges of Custom, and she also wrote dramatic works such as The Hate Breeders. That range gives a good sense of her career: she was not limited to one form, and she seems to have taken an active interest in both literary and public life.
She died in 1960. Though not as widely known today as some of her contemporaries, she remains a notable figure in California literary history for the breadth of her writing and her involvement in the cultural world around her.