Her very handwriting looks as if she owned the earth.

Elizabeth Garver Jordan, 1865-1947

Trained as a secretary, Elizabeth Jordan ultimately became “the best newspaper man in New York.” Later she added to her accomplishments: editor of Harper’s Bazaar, playwright, suffragist, and novelist. The New York Public Library has preserved her correspondence with many prominent people of her day, including Jack London, Mark Twain, and William Dean Howells, Mary Austin and Susan B. Anthony.

Jordan edited two collaborative novels and wrote short stories and novels many of which the Athenæum owns and which appear to have been very well read. Two of her novels were made into movies in the 1930s, Daddy and I and The Girl in the Mirror.

Select a book or two by Elizabeth Jordan from the display in the Athenæum Reading Room and join the Re-appraisal Reading Circle on May 15 at 6:00 p.m. as we discuss Jordan’s works and consider whether her background in journalism informed her fiction and whether her fiction merits our attention today.