In the spring of 1916, as the workers for woman suffrage were
laying plans for another attack on the bastions of male supremacy,
the idea for The Sturdy Oak was born. Based on the rules of an old
parlor game, wherein one person begins a narrative, another
continues it, and another follows, this collaborative effort by the
leading writers of the day, such as Fannie Hurst, Dorothy Canfield,
and Kathleen Norris, is a satiric look at the gender roles of the
time.
There is much in The Sturdy Oak that reflects the New York
campaign for suffrage of 1916-1917. The setting is the fictional
city of Whitewater in upstate New York. Idealistic reformers are
pitted against a ruthless political machine, and the traditional
picture of man as "the sturdy oak" supporting woman, "the clinging
vine", is ridiculed in the portrayal of an engaging couple, George
and Genevieve Remington. Nonetheless, the purpose of the book is
not primarily ridicule but reform, and the reader is taken through
the steps by which a confirmed anti-suffragist is gradually
transformed into a supporter of the suffrage cause.
Beyond its historical interest, The Sturdy Oak is imbued with a
political and social currency that makes it applicable even today.
And because of the skill of the writers of this composite novel,
even eight decades after its initial publication The Sturdy Oak is
still, as the New York Times said in 1917, "irresistibly
readable".
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