Alice Ilgenfritz Jones
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Alice Ilgenfritz Jones (January 9, 1846 – March 5, 1906) was an American author. Born in Ohio, she spent most of her life in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies o ...
. She wrote travel essays for ''
Lippincott's Monthly Magazine ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' was a 19th-century literary magazine published in Philadelphia from 1868 to 1915, when it relocated to New York to become ''Robert M. McBride, McBride's Magazine''. It merged with ''Scribner's Magazine'' in 1916. ...
'' and several novels. The first novel, ''High-Water Mark'', appeared under the pen name "Ferris Jerome" and was a Gothic romance set in a prairie town. Her most notable work is the 1893 feminist utopia '' Unveiling a Parallel''. She wrote it with , and they called themselves the "Two Women of the West". Jones also wrote a novel about an enslaved woman who becomes an artist, ''Beatrice of Bayou Têche'', and a historical novel set in the 18th century called ''The Chevalier de St. Denis''. She died during a vacation in Cuba.


Biography

Alice Ilgenfritz was born on January 9, 1846, in
Shanesville, Ohio Sugarcreek is a village in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,373 at the 2020 census. It is known as "The Little Switzerland of Ohio". Located in Ohio's Amish Country, the village is part of a large regional tourism ...
. Her parents were Henry and Anna Ilgenfritz (). They moved to
Clarksville, Iowa Clarksville is a city in Butler County, Iowa, Butler County, Iowa, United States, along the Shell Rock River. The population was 1,264 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A post office opened in Clarksville in 1861. Geography Accordin ...
, in 1863; her father traded furniture and at some point became mayor. Alice, who lived in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies o ...
, for most of her life, went to school at the Evansville Seminary in
Evansville, Wisconsin Evansville is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,703 at the 2020 census. Evansville is a part of the Janesville- Beloit Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Madison-Janesville-Beloit CSA. History Evansvil ...
. Under the pen name Ferris Jerome, she wrote the 1879 novel ''High-Water Mark'' published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. The title refers to a fictional prairie town where the action takes place, but the book is more like a Gothic romance than a pioneer story. In the following years, she wrote further fiction and also travelogues that were published in ''
Lippincott's Monthly Magazine ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' was a 19th-century literary magazine published in Philadelphia from 1868 to 1915, when it relocated to New York to become ''Robert M. McBride, McBride's Magazine''. It merged with ''Scribner's Magazine'' in 1916. ...
''. She described travels to the
lakes of Minnesota This is a list of lakes of Minnesota. Although promoted as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", Minnesota has 11,842 lakes of or more. The 1968 state survey found 15,291 lake basins, of which 3,257 were dry. If all basins over 2.5 acres were counted, Minn ...
and to the
Red River of the North The Red River (), also called the Red River of the North () to differentiate it from the Red River of the South, Red River in the south of the continent, is a river in the north-central United States and central Canada. Originating at the confl ...
. In 1884, she married Hiram Edward Jones, a furniture merchant in Cedar Rapids. Her husband was a widower who had a small daughter. Alice Jones's next published work was the 1893 utopian science fiction '' Unveiling a Parallel'', written together with under the joint pseudonym "Two Women of the West". The book, set on Mars, shows two societies where men and women are equal. Jones's and Merchant's motivation as well as their respective contributions to the book are not known. In 1895, Jones published ''Beatrice of Bayou Têche'', a story about a light-skinned mixed-race enslaved woman who embarks on an artistic career after being freed. Jones knew the New Orleans area and the bayous from personal experience, since she regularly visited her sister in
Jennings, Louisiana Jennings is a city in, and the parish seat of, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, United States, near Lake Charles. The population was 10,383 at the 2010 census, a small decline from the 2000 tabulation. Jennings is the principal city of the ...
. Her final novel was ''The Chevalier de St. Denis'', a historical novel set in the 18th century. On March 5, 1906, during a six-week vacation in Cuba with her husband, Jones died from a cerebral hemorrhage. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids.


Reception

Jones's 1879 novel ''High-Water Mark'' has been described as "the first Iowa novel" by the literary historian Clarence Andrews. In 1890, the librarian Theodore S. Parvin included Jones in his list of Iowa authors. The 1893 ''Unveiling a Parallel'' was not widely reviewed and was out of print and difficult to obtain for nearly a century. Duangrudi Suksang, a reviewer of the 1991 re-edition described it as a "pioneering feminist work". Another reviewer, Veronica Hollinger, while listing the book as one of a "trilogy of significant works", found that "Jones and Merchant are not particularly sophisticated writers, and it is unlikely that ''Unveiling a Parallel'' will displace '' Herland'' from its position as the classic early feminist utopia." According to the 2001 re-edition of ''Beatrice of Bayou Têche'', described by reviewer Joan Hall as "long out of print and rarely discussed by literary critics", Jones was "the first white woman to take the intersection of race, gender, and creativity as her primary subject". At the time of publication, both ''Beatrice'' and ''The Chevalier de St. Denis'' were positively reviewed. One 1895 reviewer stated that the topic of slavery had "seldom been handled more forcefully" than in ''Beatrice'', excepting only ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...
''. In 1901,
Bethel Coopwood Bethel Coopwood (1827–1907) was a notable frontier figure of the American Southwest. He was born in Alabama, moved to Texas, was a soldier in the Mexican–American War, and an officer in the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. He also ...
, reviewing ''The Chevalier'', found it a "well written historical novel" and "above the average of its kind in the market".


Works

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Notes


References


Sources

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External links


Unveiling a Parallel (1893)
by Liza Daly, blog post with many relevant newspaper clippings {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Alice Ilgenfritz 1846 births 1906 deaths People from Tuscarawas County, Ohio Authors of utopian literature 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American travel writers 19th-century American women writers