author

Pearl Hogrefe

A scholar of Tudor England and a longtime Iowa State English professor, she wrote lively, accessible books that brought overlooked women of the sixteenth century into focus. Her work also left a lasting mark on creative writing at the university through fellowships and awards that still bear her name.

1 Audiobook

Humanistic Studies of the University of Kansas, Vol. 1

Humanistic Studies of the University of Kansas, Vol. 1

by Edmund Dresser Cressman, De Witt Clinton Croissant, Pearl Hogrefe, Arthur Mitchell

About the author

Born in 1889, Pearl Hogrefe was an American scholar, teacher, and author whose career centered on English literature and writing. Iowa State University archives note that she earned degrees from Southwestern College, the University of Kansas, and the University of Chicago, and later taught at several colleges before joining Iowa State, where she served on the English faculty for many years.

Hogrefe is especially remembered for books on Tudor history and literature, including Tudor Women: Commoners and Queens (1975) and Women of Action in Tudor England: Nine Biographical Sketches (1977). Her studies stood out for shifting attention toward women who were active in politics, patronage, religion, and public life, helping general readers see Tudor England from a different angle.

She was also connected to creative writing as well as literary scholarship. Iowa State still honors her legacy through the Pearl Hogrefe Fellowship in Creative Writing and related student awards, a sign of how strongly her teaching and support for writers were remembered after her death in 1977.