Showing results by author "Edna Ferber"

In this continuation of Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber's series set at the turn of the 20th century, the magnetic divorcée Emma McChesney faces a new set of challenges. In partnership with T.A. Buck Jr., Emma struggles to keep the T.A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company relevant, while her charismatic 21-year-old son takes the NY advertising world by storm. Jock's insistence that his business-savvy mother's methods are outdated leads to a crisis of confidence for Emma. But Jock's charm and ability to "sell ice to an Eskimo" land him in trouble.

In this early novel by Edna Ferber, a successful, charming businesswoman watches and encourages her handsome son as he faces the challenges and pressures of the advertising world.

Although the story is over 100 years old, it offers an important truth that is still relevant to the modern listener. Rather than rely on dialogue to advance the plot, noted American Edna Ferber is an exceptional storyteller who delights and entertains the listener with narrative. Her stories featuring strong heroines are as fresh and original today as when they were written.

"Personality Plus" is an early novel by American author Edna Ferber. Originally published in 1914, it chronicles the travels and events in the life of Emma McChesney. Ferber achieved her first successes with a series of stories centering on this character, a stylish and intelligent divorced mother who rises rapidly in business.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber created three wildly successful books featuring the business adventures of a dynamic, divorced single mother at the turn of the century. The first book in this classic series introduces listeners to the engaging, beautiful, and quick-talking Emma McChesney, traveling saleswoman for the T.A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company. Emma's 10 years on the road have taught her that living the Philosophy of Roast Beef, Medium allows her to avoid "moral pepsin" while meeting the challenges required to win in a man's world.

Edna Ferber, a prolific and popular novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner, was one of the first to portray women as aggressive, assertive, and successful. However, Terry Sheehan, in her pursuit of self-fulfillment, discovered marriage to be a two way street with pot holes along the way.

A timeless coming-of-age story that could well have been plucked from today's headlines, Fanny Herself is about gender prejudice, sexual awakening, the plight of the working classes, down home anti-Semitism and the life and loves of an irrepressible charming girl who gains the world and almost loses her true self.

There is invariably something to laugh or cry about and a lot to think about in these short stories by Edna Ferber.

Blanche Devine is a middle aged woman who has lived in the same small Midwestern town most of her life. She decides she wants to purchase a 'real' home in a pleasant neighborhood in the town. Because Blanche has a past as the town's 'scarlet' woman, many of the self-described good and respectable people do not want her as a neighbor. Edna Ferber wrote mostly about women and their place in society along with their plight when they did not follow society's norms.

The story revolves around Fanny Brandeis, starting with her childhood in Winnebago, WI, where her parents run a shop. After Fanny's father dies, her mother Molly must make extremely difficult choices about Fanny's and her brother Theodore's educations. These choices set the course for the entire family throughout their lives. Rather than rely on dialogue to advance the plot, noted American author Edna Ferber is an exceptional storyteller who delights the listener with narrative. Fanny must decide whether to pursue wealth or follow her creative dreams.

"The Homely Heroine" is a collection of four short stories by author Edna Ferber. The other three stories in the collection are: "A Bush League Hero", "What She Wore" and "The Man Who Came Back". All of them center around ordinary people, showing off both their courage, dignity and their shortcomings when facing challenges in life. A moving and thoughtful listening experience.

"One Basket" is a collection of numerous short stories by author Edna Ferber, published in 1947. All of them share the author's wonderful way with prose and tone, and most of them are about very ordinary men and women, living their daily lives... Especially the women, their hopes, fears, strength and weakness are brought to loving life by the author!

Who ever heard of a plain and downright homely heroine? Isn't a heroine by definition beautiful? Well, Edna Ferber, in her well known style that later produced Show Boat and Giant, tells us about just such a heroine in this special short story. It is special to me because of her insight into the deep courage and faith of 'ordinary' people, people like most of us. And of course our failings and frailties and sometimes, the prince does not marry the right person. Yep.

This is not a baseball story. The grandstand does not rise as one man and shout itself hoarse with joy. There isn't a three-bagger in the entire 3,000 words, and nobody is carried home on the shoulders of the crowd. Instead this is a story by the talented Edna Ferber about a small town in America and the hopes and dreams of those people we meet every day, even now. Full of hope and dreams.

In this final book of Pulitzer Prize-winner Edna Ferber's series featuring the indomitable Emma McChesney, Emma's newly married son Jock has relocated to Chicago, leaving Emma an empty-nester. Her secret romance and pending nuptials stall when their company is thrown into an uproar at the height of the selling season. To defeat her long-time nemesis and take the T.A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company international, the always-competitive Emma sails off on a whirlwind tour of South America.

A man returns to his home town from prison. He hopes to sneak in, pay a quick visit and vanish before people recognize him. But this may not be possible. What happens to a man's soul after years in prison? Ferber explores this poignant and sad subject in this story. But the ending is full of hope.

War has always changed men physically and mentally. They go away as healthy physically fit young men; when they come back, if they do they are not the same young man who went away. They may have suffered disabling physical injury in addition to a mental injury that may or may not manifest itself physically, but typically it is there. In World War I they called it shell-shocked, today we call it PTSD. This is a short story by Edna Ferber of a healthy, husky, and slightly arrogant in a nice way young man, and the beautiful girl awaiting his return home.

"The Dancing Girls" is a short story collection by author Edna Ferber. The other stories in the collection are: "Old Lady Mandle", "Long Distance" and "One Hundred Percent". As almost always with the great Edna Ferber, the stories celebrate the ordinary humanity in all its fragility and resilience facing most of the things life throws at it.

I started to read a story once. It was a good one. There was in it not a single allusion to brandy-and-soda, or divorce, or the stock market. The dialogue crackled. The hero talked like a live man. It was a shipboard story, and the heroine was charming so long as she wore her heavy ulster. But along toward evening she blossomed forth in a yellow gown, with a scarlet poinsettia at her throat. I quit her cold. Nobody ever wore a scarlet poinsettia; or if they did, they couldn't wear it on a yellow gown.

"Emma McChesney and Company" is the third instalment in a series of novels about the independent career woman, mother and divorcee Emma McChesney, published in 1915 by author Edna Ferber, famed and loved for her beautiful descriptions of "ordinary women" and their lives. This work is no exception; here our heroine travels to Argentina to sell her products - petticoats and skirts - but will success be awaiting...? And what about romance...?