author
Katharine Pearson Woods
1853–1923
Best known for the surprise success of Metzerott, Shoemaker, she wrote socially engaged fiction shaped by faith, reform, and a strong interest in workers’ lives. Her work helped make her a notable literary figure in Baltimore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
1 Audiobook
Metzerott, Shoemaker
by Katharine Pearson Woods
About the author
Born in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1853, Katharine Pearson Woods was an American novelist, labor activist, and advocate of Christian socialism. She published fiction, poetry, and essays, and is most often remembered for Metzerott, Shoemaker (1889), a novel whose success brought her wide attention.
Woods wrote about social conditions with unusual directness, especially questions of labor, poverty, and religion. Accounts of her life also connect her with Baltimore’s literary culture, where she became an important presence and a source of inspiration for the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore.
She died in Baltimore in 1923. Today, she stands out as a writer who used popular fiction not just to entertain, but to explore how moral conviction and social reform could meet in everyday life.