author
Octave Thanet
1850–1934
A popular American writer of the late 1800s and early 1900s, she published under the pen name Octave Thanet and became known for vivid stories of Midwestern and Southern life. Her fiction helped make local-color writing a favorite of magazine readers in her day.
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 later became widely known by the pseudonym Octave Thanet. She spent much of her life in Davenport, Iowa, and built a successful literary career at a time when magazine fiction could make an author nationally famous.
Her best-known work includes short stories and novels such as Knitters in the Sun and Stories of a Western Town. Contemporary readers were drawn to her realistic settings and her interest in everyday life in the American Midwest and South, and she was often described as an important local-color writer.
Alice French died on January 9, 1934. Although she is less widely read now than she was in her own era, Octave Thanet remains a notable figure in American literary history, especially for readers interested in regional fiction and the world of nineteenth-century magazines.