1915: Jean Stafford - Resources and General Discussion

(1915–1979)

Jean Stafford was an American author most known for her novel The Mountain Lion, and particularly remembered for her short stories. From 1936 to 1937, she studied philology at the University of Heidelberg. She was married with the poet Robert Lowell. In 1970, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Stafford is seen as a proto-feminist writer.

I am a big Jean Stafford fan. I think The Mountain Lion is brilliant and I've also read The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, which I had more trouble liking, although the stories set in the west, as was The Mountain Lion, were much better than most of the others. The stories make clear that she was an unhappy person, and the introduction to the collection by Joyce Carol Oates says she was unhappy specifically in her marriage to Robert Lowell.

So far, I have only read The Mountain Lion. It left a strong impression on me, and I particularly liked the beautiful descriptions of the American landscape and nature.

Next year, I intend to read Boston Adventure, which I have on my TBR pile.

I just read somewhere (now I can't find it again) about Stafford because it was the centennial of her birth on July 1. I would like to read something else by her, but all the books I haven't read seem to be out of print.