Inez Haynes Irwin (March 2, 1873 – September 25, 1970) was an American

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

author, journalist, member of the National Women's Party, and president of the

Authors Guild The Authors Guild is America's oldest and largest professional organization for writers and provides advocacy on issues of free expression and copyright protection. Since its founding in 1912 as the Authors League of America, it has counted among ...

. Many of her works were published under her former name Inez Haynes Gillmore. She wrote over 40 books and was active in the suffragist movement in the early 1900s. Irwin was a "rebellious and daring woman", but referred to herself as "the most timid of created beings". She died at the age of 97. Irwin was a close friend of the American feminist writer Mary MacLane, who included a colorful personality portrait of Irwin in her newspaper articles in

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...

, in 1910.

Early years and education

Inez Haynes was born on March 2, 1873, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Gideon Haynes and Emma Jane Hopkins Haynes. Her parents were from Boston in the United States, but were staying in Brazil because of her father's business problems. Her mother, her father's second wife, was 24 years younger than him, and had to raise a family of 17 children (10 of whom were her own). The family returned to Boston where Inez Haynes grew up. She attended four public schools, and then

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

between 1897 and 1900. At the time Radcliffe was a "center of suffragist sentiment", and Inez Haynes and Maud Wood Park founded the

College Equal Suffrage League The College Equal Suffrage League (CESL) was an American woman suffrage organization founded in 1900 by Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin (''nee'' Gillmore), as a way to attract younger Americans to the women's rights movement. The League spurred ...

, which later became the National College Equal Suffrage League.

Career

In August 1897, Inez Haynes married Rufus H. Gillmore, a newspaper editor, and assumed the name Inez Haynes Gillmore. The Gillmores visited pre- War Europe where she met Russian revolutionaries and French

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painters. While her husband supported her feminism, they later divorced. She published her first novel, ''June Jeopardy'' in 1908 and soon after became fiction editor of '' The Masses'', a left-wing monthly magazine. In January 1916, she married writer

William Henry Irwin William Henry Irwin (September 14, 1873 – February 24, 1948) was an American author, writer and journalist who was associated with the muckrakers. Early life Irwin was born in 1873 in Oneida, New York. In his early childhood, the Irwin fam ...

, and her name changed to Inez Haynes Irwin, although she continued publishing under her former name, Inez Haynes Gillmore. The Irwins summered in Scituate, Massachusetts, during the early 1900s.Harold Howard, compiler, Towns of Scituate and Marshfield Massachusetts Directory 1918: Containing an Alphabetical List of the Inhabitants, a Summer Resident Directory … (Boston: Harold Howard, 1918), 79. During World War I the Irwins lived in Europe where she worked as a war correspondent in England, France and Italy. Inez Haynes estimated that between 500,000 and 750,000 women were killed in the war. William Henry died in 1948 and she moved to

Scituate, Massachusetts Scituate () is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 19,063 at the 2020 census. History The Wampanoag and their neighbors have inhabited ...

, where she remained until her death at the age of 97 on September 25, 1970. Inez Haynes was a feminist leader and a political activist. She was a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Women's Party, and wrote the Party's biography, ''The Story of the Woman's Party'', in 1921. She also wrote a history of American women, ''Angels and Amazons: A Hundred Years of American Women'' (1933).

Writing career

Apart from the non-fiction works noted above, she published over 30 novels, including '' Angel Island'' (1914), a "radical feminist Swiftian fantasy" about a group of men stranded on an island occupied by winged women. ''Angel Island'' was republished in 1988 as a "classic of early feminist literature" with an introduction by science fiction and fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin. Her fiction often addressed feminist issues and the plight of women, including divorce, single parenthood and problems in the workplace. Her 15-book "Maida" series of children's books was written over a period of 45 years, and tells the story of a school girl whose mother has died and whose father is very wealthy. She also wrote short stories for magazines, one of which, "The Spring Flight," won her the O. Henry Memorial Prize in 1924.

Associations

*Author's Guild of America, vice-President, 1930–1931; president, 1931–1933 *National Collegiate Equal Suffrage League, co-founder *Chairman of board of directors of the World Center for Women's Archives, 1936–1938/1940. *Member of American committee of Prix Femina, 1931–1933 Source: ''Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopia''

Awards

* O. Henry Award, 1924 – for her short story, "The Spring Flight" Source: ''Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopia''

Selected works

Novels

*''June Jeopardy'', Huebsch, 1908 *''Phoebe and Ernest'', Holt, 1910 – illustrated by

R. F. Schabelitz Rudolph Frederick Schabelitz (1884 – July 2, 1959) was an American illustrator, comics artist painter and author who was regularly featured in national periodicals. He illustrated several artist-themed murder mysteries by Willetta Ann Barber i ...

*''Janey: being the record of a short interval in the journey through life and the struggle with society of a little girl of nine'', Holt, 1911 *''Phoebe, Ernest, and Cupid'', Holt, 1912 – illustrated by R. F. Schabelitz *'' Angel Island'', Holt, 1914 – reprinted, Arno, 1978; new edition, NAL Plume, 1988 with an introduction by Ursula K. Le Guin *''The Ollivant Orphans'', Holt 1915 *''The Lady of Kingdoms'', George H. Doran, 1917 *''The Happy Years'', Holt, 1919 *''Out of the Air'', Harcourt, 1921 *''The Lost Diana'' (novella), ''Everybody's Magazine'', June 1923 *''Discarded'', serialized in '' The American Magazine'', May–November 1925 *''Gertrude Haviland's Divorce'', Harper, 1925 *''Gideon'', Harper, 1927 *''P.D.F.R.: A New Novel'', Harper, 1928 *''Family Circle'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1931 *''Youth Must Laugh'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1932 *''Strange Harvest'', Bobbs-Merrill, 1934 *''Murder Masquerade'', H. Smith & R. Haas, 1935 *''Little Miss Redhead'', Lothrop, 1936 – self-illustrated *''The Poison Cross Mystery'', H. Smith & R. Haas, 1936 *''A Body Rolled Downstairs'', Random House, 1938 *''Many Murders'', Random House, 1941 *''The Women Swore Revenge'', Random House, 1946

The Maida books

*''Maida's Little Shop'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1909 *''Maida's Little House'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1921 *''Maida's Little School'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1926 *''Maida's Little Island'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1939 *''Maida's Little Camp'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1940 *''Maida's Little Village'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1942 *''Maida's Little Houseboat'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1943 *''Maida's Little Theater'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1946 *''Maida's Little Cabins'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1947 *''Maida's Little Zoo'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1949 *''Maida's Little Lighthouse'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1951 *''Maida's Little Hospital'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1952 *''Maida's Little Farm'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1953 *''Maida's Little House Party'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1954 *''Maida's Little Treasure Hunt'', Grosset & Dunlap, 1955

Short stories

*"The Father of His Son", ''Everybody's Magazine'', July 1904 *"A Doorstep Introduction", '' Pearson's Magazine'', November 1904 *"Love Me, Love My Dog", ''Pearson's Magazine, November 1904 *"The Start", ''Everybody's Magazine'', December 1904 *"The Matchbreakers", ''Hampton's Broadway Magazine'', November 1908 *"The Eternal Challenge", ''Everybody's Magazine'', January 1912 *"With Pitfall and With Gin", '' Pictorial Review'', February 1912 *"The Woman Across the Street", ''

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...

'', September 1916 *"The Sixth Canvassar", ''The Century'', January 1916 *"The Last Cartridge", '' McCall's'', October 1922 *"The Spring Flight", ''McCall's'', June 1924 – winner of the 1924 O. Henry Memorial Prize *"The Irish Language", ''Everybody's Magazine'', July 1925

Non-fiction

*''The Californiacs'', A. M. Robertson, 1916 – a travel book about California *''The Native Son'', A. M. Robertson, 1919 – a book on California *''The Story of the Women's Party'', Harcourt, 1921; published as ''Up Hill With Banners Flying'', Traversity Press, 1964 – a biography of the National Women's Party's and a history of the

suffragists Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

*''Angels and Amazons: A Hundred Years of American Women'', Doubleday, 1933 – a collection of biographical sketches *''Good Manners for Girls'', Appleton-Century, 1937 *"You Bet I Am!" (article), '' Woman's Day'', October 1938 *''Adventures of Yesterday'', General Microfilm, 1973 – an autobiography Source: ''Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopia''

References

External links

* *

at manybooks.net * Will Irwin and Inez Haynes Gillmore Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Inez Haynes Gillmore Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irwin, Inez Haynes 1873 births 1970 deaths Writers from Boston Writers from Rio de Janeiro (city) American feminist writers American suffragists American science fiction writers O. Henry Award winners Women science fiction and fantasy writers National Woman's Party activists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century Brazilian women writers 20th-century Brazilian writers American women children's writers American children's writers College Equal Suffrage League