Biography

Gilbert, Julie Goldsmith. Ferber: A Biography of Edna Ferber and Her Circle. New York: Doubleday, 1978, 445 p.

Focuses on Ferber's personal life and her associations with such artists, writers, and public personalities as George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart, and Alexander Woollcott. Gilbert presents Ferber's life in reverse chronological order, beginning with her last years and the writing of her major works, and proceeding through to her childhood.

Criticism

Banning, Margaret Culkin. "Edna Ferber's America." The Saturday Review of Literature XIX, No. 15 (4 February 1939): 5-6.

Favorably reviews Ferber's autobiography, A Peculiar Treasure.

Bromfield, Louis. "Edna Ferber." The Saturday Review of Literature XII, No. 7 (15 June 1935): 10-12.

Overview of Ferber's early life and its influence on the formation of her literary career.

Butcher, Fanny. "Ferber's Latest in Pace with Other Works." Chicago Daily Tribune (9 March 1935): 14.

Mixed review of Come and Get It.

Colby, Nathalie Sedgwick. "Simultaneous Differences." The Saturday Review of Literature III, No. 42 (14 May 1927): 819-20.

Mixed review of Mother Knows Best. While Colby applauds the characterizations and themes of these short stories, she contends that the unified plotline of the collection is better suited to the novel form.

Field, Louise Maunsell. "From Gopher Prairie on to High Prairie." New York Times Book Review (24 February 1924): 9.

Favorable review of So Big. Field contends that the characters and storyline are clearly drawn, sympathetically presented, and memorable.

Horowitz, Steven P., and Landsman, Miriam J. "The Americanization of Edna Ferber: A Study of Ms. Ferber's Jewish American Identity." In Studies in American Jewish Literature: From Marginality to Mainstream, A Mosaic of Jewish Writers, Volume 2, edited by Daniel Walden, pp. 69-80. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982.

Discusses Ferber's Jewish heritage and the ways in which she wrote about it in her two autobiographies.

Overton, Grant, "Edna Ferber." In his The Women Who Make Our Novels, pp. 126-38. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1928.

Biographical sketch with commentary on the development of the main themes of Ferber's fiction.

Reely, Mary Katharine. "Cheerful—But Not Cloying." The Publishers Weekly 94 (21 September 1918): 848.

Favorable review of the short story collection Cheerful—By Request.

Rice, Jennings. "Cross-Section of American Life." New York Herald Tribune Book Review (16 February 1947): 7.

Favorable review of One Basket in which Rice discusses the various themes and settings of the short stories.

Walton, Edith H. "Tales by Edna Ferber." New York Times Book Review (13 February 1938): 6-7.

Generally favorable review of the two novellas in Nobody's in Town.

White, William Allen. "Edna Ferber." World's Work LIX, No. 6 (June 1930): 36-9

Examines various influences on the development of Ferber's literary career.

Young, Stark. Review of Stage Door, by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman. The New Republic LXXXIX, No. 1144 (11 November 1936): 50.

Applauds the themes, characterizations, and acting in the October 22, 1936 Broadway production of Stage Door. Young contends, however, that "too many moments are whooped up; the vernacular, the sayings, the quaint and atmospheric bits are all too packed in."