author
Lucy S. Furman
1869–1958
A pioneering voice in Appalachian fiction, this Kentucky writer brought mountain communities to national readers with warmth, humor, and unusual respect. Her stories and novels helped shape how later generations would write about the region.
3 Audiobooks
Sight to the Blind
by Lucy S. Furman
Mothering on Perilous
by Lucy S. Furman
The quare women : A story of the Kentucky mountains
by Lucy S. Furman
About the author
Born in Henderson County, Kentucky, Lucy S. Furman was an American novelist and short story writer whose work drew wide attention in magazines before appearing in books. Reliable sources agree that she was born on June 7, 1870, and died on August 24, 1958, even though some library records list her as 1869.
Furman became especially known for fiction set in Kentucky mountain communities. She worked at the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County from 1907 to 1927, and that experience deeply informed her writing about daily life, education, and rural society in eastern Kentucky. Later critics have described her as an important early influence on Appalachian literature.
Beyond literature, she is also remembered for animal welfare activism. What makes her work stand out today is its sympathetic attention to ordinary people and places that were often ignored or misunderstood by outsiders.