author
Octave Thanet
1850–1934
A major American local-color writer at the turn of the 20th century, she published fiction under the pen name Octave Thanet and drew memorable settings from the Midwest and the Arkansas Delta.
4 Audiobooks
The lion's share
by Octave Thanet
The Missionary Sheriff Being incidents in the life of a plain man who tried to do his duty
by Octave Thanet
Stories of a Western Town
by Octave Thanet
Stories That End Well
by Octave Thanet
About the author
Born Alice French in Andover, Massachusetts, on March 19, 1850, she became widely known by the pen name Octave Thanet. She was an American novelist and short-story writer whose work was especially popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Her fiction is often linked with local color writing, a style that brings regional speech, customs, and places vividly to life. Sources describe her as an important Midwestern regional writer, and the years she spent at her family's winter home in Clover Bend, Arkansas, shaped some of her best-known work.
She died in Davenport, Iowa, on January 9, 1934. Although she is less widely read now than she was in her own time, she remains a notable figure in American literary history under both the names Alice French and Octave Thanet.