SOURCE: "An Interview with Edna Ferber," in his Writers and Writing, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1946, pp. 360-65.

In the following essay, based on a 1945 interview, Gelder examines Ferber's views on the writing process.

Edna Ferber waited for the publication of her new novel, Great Son. Her hands and her talk were restless. The talk ranged over the hard drinking of some American writers and their wives: "She was like a little girl, a child, but after the cocktails and wine at dinner, she filled a whole tumbler full of Scotch and drank it down as I'd drink water; before long she looked like an old hag." The talk reached to Russia and Communism: "It's a good system for them; sure, it is. I visited there as a tourist and I know what they want. They want oranges and shoes and wrist watches and fountain pens and little cars to...