Harriette Arnow was an American teacher, novelist, social historian and essayist, celebrated for her works on the populations of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. She was born into a family of teachers in 1908 and after studying at the University of Louisville taught for two years in a school in rural Pulaski County. These experiences provided the basis for her first novel, Mountain Path. After spending time in Cincinnati and Kentucky, Arnow moved with her husband and two children to a farm in Michigan. It was there that she wrote The Dollmaker in 1954, a book that would become a landmark in American fiction. It was at that same farm that she died in 1984.
The depth and power and stature of this enormous book are rare indeed in modern fiction * New York Times * It is a legitimate tragedy, our most unpretentious American masterpiece -- Joyce Carol Oates An extraordinary novel, one that burns ferociously with the great twinned fires of country and city that constitute America. Its opening pages are among the most striking I've read in recent years but so are its last. May this hard, beautiful story find the many new readers it deserves -- Laird Hunt A book of biblical intensity... With vivid insights into racial, religious and labour tensions, this is a terrifying lesson in US history - and a haunting tragedy * Guardian * A masterwork...A superb book of unforgettable strength and glowing richness * New York Times *