Stories of a Western Town

Alice French (1850-1934), better known as Octave Thanet, was an American novelist. She was born at Andover, Massachusetts, a daughter of George Henry and Frances Wood French, and began her literary career about 1878 with studies of a social and economic bent, but soon turned to short stories, especially after her removal to the West. Iowa and Arkansas gave her opportunities for exploiting regions hitherto little attempted in fiction. Her novel Expiation (1890), won high praise. Her other works include: The Bishop's Vagabond (1884), Knitters in the Sun (1887), An Adventure in Photography (1893), Stories of a Western Town (1893), Otto the Knight (1893), The Missionary Sherriff (1897), A Book of True Lovers (1898), The Captured Dream (1899), The Man of the Hour (1905), Stories That End Well (1911) and A Step on the Stair (1913).