author
Mrs. John Van Vorst
1873–1928
An American author and journalist, she is best remembered for vivid, first-hand writing about working women and social conditions at the turn of the twentieth century. Her best-known book, The Woman Who Toils, helped bring factory life to a wide audience.
1 Audiobook
The Woman Who Toils Being the Experiences of Two Gentlewomen as Factory Girls
by Mrs. John Van Vorst, Marie Van Vorst
About the author
Born Bessie McGinnis in New York on September 2, 1873, she wrote under the name Mrs. John Van Vorst and built a career as an author and journalist. She also spent part of her life in Paris, where she collaborated with her sister-in-law, the writer and artist Marie Van Vorst.
Her most lasting reputation comes from The Woman Who Toils (1903), a book based on undercover reporting in which the two women worked as factory laborers to observe conditions for themselves. The book, introduced by Theodore Roosevelt, became a notable example of early social investigation and reform-minded nonfiction.
Alongside journalism, she wrote fiction and other books, bringing an observant, accessible style to questions about women's lives, work, and modern society. She died in Paris on May 19, 1928, but her writing still offers a lively window into the social debates of her era.