Zona Gale belongs to the relatively large group of American midwestern regionalist authors that includes Sinclair Lewis, Edgar Lee Masters, Willa Cather, Floyd Dell, Sherwood Anderson, Susan Glaspell, Theodore Dreiser, and Ruth Suckow. Like other midwestern writers of the years between 1890 and 1930, Gale addressed the problems of a rural society that was becoming increasingly urban. Her short stories present a panorama of small-town life in Wisconsin at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Zona Gale was born in Portage, Wisconsin, on 26 August 1874, the only child of Charles Franklin Gale (1842-1929), a railroad engineer, and Eliza Beers Gale (1846-1923), a teacher. Zona Gale noted later in her life that "I inherited predominant elements of character from both parents. From my mother imagination and initiative, from my father reflective and meditative tendencies; from both, power of concentration, and whatever of kindness and a socialized nature I have carried on." Her...