Jessamyn West is a notably successful popular writer. She has published short stories, novels, poetry, journals, autobiography, and an operetta. She has also written screenplays, and she served as technical adviser on the film Friendly Persuasion (1955), adapted from her first novel. Almost all West's books have been well received, even acclaimed, by reviewers; but despite this reception (or perhaps because of it) her work has been mostly neglected by academic critics. This is especially surprising in view of West's vivid, vigorous, and eloquent style and the compassion and humanity with which she treats the serious themes of her work.

Born in 1902 in Indiana to Eldo and Grace Milhous West, Jessamyn West is a birthright Quaker, descended from a long line of Quaker ministers. In 1909 the family (including two other children) moved to California and eventually settled at Yorba Linda. West attended Fullerton High School and made a name...