Officiële naam: Abbott, Jane Ludlow Drake
Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten: Abbott, Jane D.
Graflocatie: Hillcrest Cemetery, Hamburg, New York, USA
Geslacht: female
Nationaliteit: USA
Land (voor op de kaart): USA
Geboorteplaats: Buffalo, New York, USA
Plaats van overlijden: Buffalo, New York, USA
Woonplaatsen: Buffalo, New York, USA
Ithaca, New York, USA
Opleiding: Cornell University
Beroepen: Children's Author
Romance Author
Organisaties: Alpha Phi Sorority
Scribblers of Buffalo
National League of American Pen Women
Girl Scouts of America
Korte biografie: Jane Ludlow Drake Abbott (1879-1962) was an American author who began her career writing for adolescent girls, and went on to write adult romance. Born in Buffalo, New York, to a family involved in the shipbuilding industry of the Great Lakes region, she was educated at Cornell University, and married Buffalo attorney Frank A. Abbott. Most of her twenty juvenile titles were published under the name Jane D. Abbott, although a few were released under the name Jane Abbott. Her adult titles were all released under the name Jane Abbott.

Leden

Besprekingen

River's Rim door Jane Abbott

Written by my great-grandaunt, Jane Ludlow Drake Abbott. Her mother's family had lived in Black Rock since 1807, so the book may be based in part on family stories. Her great grandfather, Ethan H. Ludlow, was an 1812 veteran and pioneer of Black Rock, as was her great-great grandfather, Maj. Frederick Miller.

Gemarkeerd

drakeg | 1 andere bespreking | Nov 23, 2023 |

Singing Shadows door Jane Abbott

Judith Peyton lived a quiet life, working as a researcher for writers and speech-makers in Manhattan, and commuting back to her family home, inherited from her deceased grandmother and mother, in Great Neck, Long Island. Engaged for some time to her sedate high school sweetheart John Storey, a teacher and novelist caring for his invalid mother, her life had an even pattern. Into this seeming peace came brash Michael Brant, a crime writer for whom she had previously done some research, and who imperiously decided that they would get to know one another better. To complicate matters further, Judith's long absent father, who had left the family when she was five, wrote to plead with her to take in her half-sister Celise. Facing upheaval in both her family and romantic life, Judith struggled to determine just who she was: a strict no-nonsense woman like her maternal forebears, or someone more open to change and to joy, like her scapegrace father...

Published in 1938, Singing Shadows is the fourteenth book I have read from Jane (D.) Abbott, an early to mid-twentieth-century author who, in the early part of her career, wrote fiction for girls, and then later moved on to romance for adult women. Of the fourteen, this is the sixth adult title I have read, and although there were aspects of it that I enjoyed, overall I did not think it a success. I find that this author has a tendency, at least with her adult romantic fiction, to add additional plot elements that detract from the main story-line. In Angels May Weep (1937) it was the starting of the dude ranch. Here it is the whole drama with Celise, and Judith's struggle to find a way to build a relationship with her. Unlike her later work from the 1950s - River's Rim (1950), The Inheritors (1953), The Open Way (1955) - where she seems better able to reconcile her disparate plot threads, her romances from the 1930s always seem as if they are made up of parts that don't fit together that comfortably. I found myself wishing, as I read this one, that the author had either chosen to tell the story of how the Peytons came back together again as a family, or how Judith chose between John and Michael, but somehow the two stories together didn't work for me. That said, I did enjoy the setting here. Judith does her research at The New York Public Library's 42nd Street location, just like I do, and she meets Michael by the famous lion statues outside on more than one occasion. I also appreciated the discussion of divorce, which was quite dated - apparently not a good idea, but if people do separate, expecting support from the man seems to be considered an injustice - but also fascinating.

Given how obscure this title is, and how difficult to track down, I'm not sure to whom I would recommend it. I read it because I am interested in the author, but it is definitely not one of her stronger stories. Perhaps readers researching American women's romantic fiction in the late 1930s might find this one of interest.… (meer)

Gemarkeerd

AbigailAdams26 | Aug 15, 2019 |

River's Rim door Jane Abbott

Set along the Niagara Frontier shortly before and during the War of 1812, this historical novel follows the trials and tribulations of the Darby family, who are divided in both their loyalties and in their residence: some on the American side of the border, some on the Canadian. The story is at first told chiefly from the perspective of Quint Darby, scion of an established and affluent family from Connecticut, who was disowned by his Tory father during the American Revolution, fought with Anthony Wayne's Rangers in the Northwest Indian War, during which conflict he lost an arm, and who, when the story opens, is the proprietor of the ferry and Ferry Tavern at Scajaquada Creek, just south of Buffalo. Unhappily married to Rhoda, a former bond girl who is deeply ashamed of her humble beginnings, Quint dreams of founding a shipping empire in the Great Lakes region, putting all of his energy into making that a reality. He considers the Canadians living on the other side of the Niagara River to be his friends and neighbors, and has no time for the growing talk of war. He is surprised when his brother Alec and nephew Richard arrive at the tavern, and more shocked to learn his brother has sold their ancestral home in Connecticut, and is moving to Canada, to the settlement of Newark. No more fond of the arrogant Alec than he was when they were boys, he nevertheless helps him, and, through a surprising turn of events, becomes guardian to his niece, Jennet Darby, who is nothing like her father or brother. The bulk of the novel is then split between Quint and Jennet's perspectives, as the former must deal with the growing tensions between himself and Rhoda, as well as the suspicions of some of his countrymen, given his family background and lack of enthusiasm for war; while the latter is torn between her love for Peter Brant, a half-Mohawk man she meets when he comes to visit the local Seneca village, and red-haired Erron Piers, her uncle's heir and a shipbuilder. The events of the war bring these personal dramas to a head, and choices must be made by all...

Published in 1950, River's Rim is the second novel from Jane Abbott that I have read that explores life on the Niagara Frontier during the War of 1812. The first was Folly Farm, a children's novel published in 1934, and I was able to discern a number of similarities of theme and plot between that earlier book and this title for adults. The first of these is the anti-war sentiment displayed by the main characters in both books. Quint Darby's feelings about the subject mirrored those of Luke Haverhill, the father of Folly Farm heroine Jeremy Haverhill - both considered it madness for Americans and Canadians who lived side by side in peace to be fighting one another because of quarrels between Washington and Britain. The narratives of both books depict the stupidity of the conflict, and both the woeful state of preparation and the arrogance on the American side. There is certainly no bombastic patriotism here! Perhaps this is owing to the fact that Jane Abbott was a lifelong resident of Buffalo, and knew the area well? Perhaps she had kin on both sides of the border? I'm not sure to what this lack of jingoism is owing, to be honest, but I found it refreshing, when reading both books. The second striking similarity between the two books is the character of Peter Brant, who is half Mohawk, half white, and who must choose between his mother's and father's peoples. In both stories the heroine is drawn to this character - in Folly Farm he is more of a brother, whereas here he is a potential love interest - and while his character is more fully explored in Folly Farm, in both books he is treated with sympathy in the narrative, and defended by the protagonist. There is still quite a bit of prejudice here - although she objects to Erron calling Peter a "half-breed," and the Mohawks "savages," Jennet ends up using the latter term herself, when she thinks the invading Mohawks might attack her uncle - and Jennet's love for Peter, although treated sympathetically, is eventually depicted as a childish romantic dream, one to be replaced by a fuller, more mature understanding with Erron. I continue to find Abbott's writing engaging, and her characters astutely drawn, and am glad to read this one, despite its sometimes dated feel. Recommended to readers interested (as I am) in the author, or to those seeking historical fiction about the War of 1812 as it was experienced along the American/Canadian border.… (meer)

Gemarkeerd

AbigailAdams26 | 1 andere bespreking | Jul 18, 2019 |

The Open Way door Jane Abbott

Set in the years directly after World War II, this engaging novel focuses on the Birketts, one of the founding families of the city of Lakeport, in upstate New York. The perspective primarily shifts back and forth between the two youngest of the four Birkett siblings - Kit (Kathleen) and Jimmie - although there are some chapters told from the point of view of Constance Birkett, the siblings' elderly maiden aunt. Recently returned from the war, where he served as a paratrooper, Jimmie had been working in New York City for the wealthy father of his fiancée, whom he had met in England. His return to Lakeport at the beginning of the book, and his announcement that he hopes to help at least six other people to find the comfort and support of God, in their darkest moments, causes confusion and consternation for his conventional elder siblings. Moving in with Aunt Connie in the working class area of town - the old Birkett home having been overtaken by shifting demographics - he takes a blue-collar job at a local cereal factory and makes his first fumbling attempts to do for others what was done for him during the war, when his unit was stranded behind enemy lines and all hope seemed lost. Kit, in the meantime, who recently jilted her own fiancé shortly before their wedding, clings stubbornly to her daily trips to a horse farm outside of the city, and to the sense of freedom that it gives her. Determinedly ignoring the incipient scandal of her spending so much time amongst single men at the stables, she forms an unconventional bond with the farm's owner, Gil Zukor. But can she hold on to her sense of independence, and will it bring her the satisfaction she had hoped...?

Much like Jane Abbott's Angels May Weep, which was written and set during the Great Depression, The Open Way addressed some serious themes - the human relationship to the Divine, and the role of faith in people's lives; class distinctions that are both significant and meaningless; the threat and fear of sexual assault; and the post-traumatic stress of young men newly released from military service - while also including some light romance and comedy. Although I didn't find the serious and lighthearted elements here as jarringly mismatched as I did in that earlier book, I was conscious during my reading of the book of a greater enjoyment of the former, and a disappointment that the story seemed to abandon some of its most interesting elements, when it turned away from Jimmie's attempts to aid a former convict at the cereal factory, to his troubled relationship with an old school friend struggling with alcoholism, and his on-again off-again relationship with his fiancée. I thought Abbott had the beginnings of a really interesting and engaging story here, in Jimmie's unlikely quest to share his vision of God and to help others, and in his relatives' various responses to his idea, from Constance's cautious sympathy and support to the elder siblings' feeling that it was nothing more than a phase. Unfortunately, although the book had definite appeal, I don't think Abbott was entirely successful in developing that story, dividing her focus too much. I think I would have enjoyed this more if the author had either made it Jimmie's story alone, or if she hadn't abandoned the subplot of parolee Bill Haslett in the latter half of the book. This is one I would recommend primarily to those interested in post-WWII American fiction, or who are fans of Abbott's work.… (meer)

Gemarkeerd

AbigailAdams26 | May 7, 2019 |

Bekijk meer besprekingen