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Anne Emery (September 1, 1907 – July 4, 1987) was the writer of popular teen romance novels from 1946 to 1980.

Personal life

Anne Emery, née Anne Eleanor McGuigan, was born Sep 1, 1907 in Fargo, North Dakota. She was raised in Evanston, Illinois, attended Northwestern University, and then taught school in Evanston. She married John Douglas Emery in 1933. They had four daughters and one son. Emery died July 4, 1987, in Menlo Park, California.

Writing career

In 1941, Emery began writing short stories. Her first sale was a 500-word story for $1.25. Her first novel, Tradition, explored the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II through the eyes of a white protagonist. Tradition, which received favorable reviews, was one of four children's books recommended for National Brotherhood Week by the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Emery went on to write dozens of what were sometimes known as "malt shop novels". In multiple books, Emery addressed the fashion of going steady by exposing the potential negatives of the trend. In Going Steady, she illustrates this through a couple who married too young, the wife pregnant and the husband trapped in a menial job.

Although many of Emery's novels fit the formulaic stereotype of teen romance, the set of novels featuring Dinny Gordon, a high-school student with a passion for archeology, focuses on the growth and development of the title character rather than the machinations of finding a boyfriend. In writing the Dinny Gordon books, Emery is described as a "transitional author", bridging the domestic patterns of the 1950s and the more female career-oriented 1960s. Joyce Litton characterizes the themes of independence, nontraditional career choices, and Dinny's refusal to be obsessed with her appearance as a "harbinger of later feminist critiques". The character Dinny Gordon was unusual at the time in teen fiction for her intellectual passion; for instance, she worked at part-time jobs to save money for a trip to Pompeii rather than for clothes and make-up.

In Free Not to Love, Emery addresses teen-age sex and, rather than showing heavy-handed consequences, has her protagonist reach the conclusion that sex is not a solution to loneliness.

In addition to over 30 teen romance novels, Emery wrote seven historical novels for children. Several of her books were translated into Japanese, one into German, and several were combined into an Italian compilation.

Her manuscripts and correspondence are preserved at the University of Oregon Library (Eugene). In the 2000s, her books were reissued by Image Cascade Publishing.

Reception

Reviewers for the New York Times generally praised Emery's books. Of Mountain Laurel: "An uncommonly good novel for older girls" and "the background, good as it is, never obscures the humanity of the characters". E. L. B., reviewing Sorority Girl, praised Emery for "her usual acute understanding of present-day teen-ager problems". Gerald Raftery declared that her historical novel, A Spy in Old Detroit, was "soundly researched, the story follows the facts faithfully". Phyllis Whitney praised Senior Year for "sound values presented in a way that makes its points without preaching" and added "particularly praiseworthy is the way Anne Emery has handled the matter of drinking among young people." An exception was That Archer Girl, about which the reviewer said that the title character "might well be a good subject for a psychiatric case study, she is too humorless to be an appealing villainess".

Jill Anderson writes that "Emery consistently used the formulaic nature of the junior novel, with its emphasis on personal growth and adjustment, to explore more challenging ethical issues, from cheating to urban and Appalachian poverty to anti-Semitism and prejudice against Nisei internees."

As contrasted to fellow teen romance authors such as Rosamond du Jardin, critics felt Emery's books presented a more realistic presentation of teen love.

While not every novel was favorably received, Richard Alm labeled Emery "a novelist of considerable merit" and described her books as "well-told stories about credible adolescents".

Publication history

References

1. ^ Fuller, Muriel (1963). More Junior Authors. H. W. Wilson Company. pp. 75-76. ISBN 0-8242-0036-5.
2. ^ "Anne Emery papers, 1941-1985". Archives West. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
3. Kegler, Stanley B.; Dunning, Stephen (May 1963). "Junior Book Roundup". The English Journal. 52 (5): 398–400. doi:10.2307/810475. JSTOR 810475.
4. Robinson, Greg (2015). "Writing the Internment". In Crystal Parikh, Daniel Y. Kim (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Asian American Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp. 45–58. ISBN 978-1107095175.
5. Robinson, Greg. "The Great Unknown and the Unknown Great: Anne Emery's novel reflected her 'deep sympathy' for JA camp survivors". Nichi Bei. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
6. Kaufman, Joanne (7 Jan 2018). "For the Love of Malt Shop Novels". New York Times Book Review.
7. ^ Litton, Joyce (March 2006). "Dinny Gordon: Proto-Feminist". The Journal of American Culture. 29 (1): 43–51. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.2006.00274.x.
8. ^ Carpan, Carolyn. (2009). Sisters, schoolgirls, and sleuths: girls' series books in America. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. pp. 84–91. ISBN 9780810857568. OCLC 245021822.
9. ^ Anderson, Jill (Spring 2014). "Dinny Gordon, Intellectual: Anne Emery's Postwar Junior Fiction and Girls' Intellectual Culture". Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth. 7 (2): 197–198. doi:10.1353/hcy.2014.0027. S2CID 143517133.
10. Gillis, Bryan (2015). Reading Between the Sheets: Sexual content in young adult novels. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 49. ISBN 9781442246874.
11. "Anne Emery Books". Image Cascade Publishing. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
12. Buell, Ellen Lewis. "Mountain Laurel". New York Times. No. 28 Nov 1948.
13. E. L. B. "Sorority Girl". New York Times. No. 30 Mar 1952.
14. Raftery, Gerald. "A Spy in Old Detroit". New York Times. No. 15 Feb 1964.
15. Whitney, Phyllis. "Senior Year". New York Times. No. 10 Jul 1949.
16. A. E. "That Archer Girl". New York Times. No. 1 Nov 1959.
17. Carlsen, C. Robert (Sep 1954). "High Note, Low Note Review". The English Journal. 43 (6): 344. JSTOR 809253.
18. Alm, Richard S. (Sep 1955). "The Glitter and the Gold". The English Journal. 44 (6): 315–322. doi:10.2307/808927. JSTOR 808927. S2CID 150333557.

• 20th-century American novelists
• American women novelists
• American writers of young adult literature
• American romantic fiction novelists
• 1907 births
• 1987 deaths
• 20th-century American women writers
• American women writers of young adult literature