Rachel Maddux (1912–1983)

Rachel Maddux was born December 15, 1912 in Wichita. Kansas. She remembers beginning to write at the age of 6 and she completed an entire novel while still a child. Respiratory problems kept Rachel from activity, so she entertained friends with stories. After graduating from the University of Kansas, Rachel attended medical school for two years. Poor health intervened, requiring Rachel to leave school and work several jobs, including an old-fashioned drummer - a traveling saleslady. Rachel was working in Kansas City, Missouri, when she published her first work, a novella called Turnip's Blood, in 1936. actress Katherine Hepburn purchased an option on the rights. Ultimately Turnip's Blood was produced as a television drama in the early 1950s. Rachel Maddux died November 19, 1983. Her autobiography and her collected stories were published posthumously.

1977 The Orchard Children
Harper & Row; 1st edition (1977)

1991 Communication, the Autobiography of Rachel Maddux, and Her Novella, Turnip's Blood (University of Tennessee Press, October 1991)

1992 The Way Things Are: The Stories of Rachel Maddux
University of Tennessee Press; 1st edition (November 1992)

1993 A Walk in the Spring Rain, and the Orchard Children (Rachel Maddux Series, Vol 3, University of Tennessee Press, January 1993)

The Green Kingdom (orignally published 1957) (The Rachel Maddux Series, Vol 4, University of Tennessee Press, March 1993)

Abel's Daughter (originally published, 1960) (The Rachel Maddux Series, Vol 5, University of Tennessee Press, March 1993)