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Harriette Arnow Biography

Harriette Arnow Biography

Born Harriette Louise Simpson in Wayne County, Kentucky on July 8, 1908, her family soon moved to Burnside, Kentucky in nearby Pulaski County. It was in Burnside, as early as the fourth grade, that she began writing. She attended boarding school for two terms in Lee County, Kentucky, while her father worked in the nearby oil fields. Arnow always credited the long tradition of storytellers in her family as her impetus to write.

Arnow attended Berea College and the University of Louisville where she earned her degree in science. Although her degree was in science, her passion was poetry and writing, and for the first time she was surrounded by others who also enjoyed writing. She returned to her beloved Burnside for her first teaching job, which was in a one-room schoolhouse. Not surprising, her first novel Mountain Path, published in 1936, chronicled a young teacher in the hills and her assimilation into the community.

In 1939 Harriette Simpson married another writer, Harold B. Arnow and they bought land south of Burnside intending to farm and live off their land, allowing time to write. It was here that their children, a daughter and a son, were born. In reality, the hard work of farming and child-rearing took nearly all their time and energy. There was very little time for writing. Arnow supplemented the farming income by teaching in a small school near their home.

With the outbreak of World War II, the Arnow family moved to Detroit and into a wartime housing project. Harriette Arnow recalls that cramped apartment as one her best times as a writer, getting much accomplished on her writing. Her second novel, Hunter's Horn, was named Book of the Year in 1949, beating Orwell's masterpiece 1984. By the early 1950's the Arnow's bought a home with several acres in nearby Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1954, The Dollmaker, her best-know novel held a position on the best-seller list for thirty-one weeks. It was runner up for book of the year, and was eventually made into an award-winning film by Jane Fonda in 1983.

Although Arnow never lived in Kentucky again, she continued to write about it as the central focus of her work. She produced two nonfiction volumes, Seedtime on the Cumberland and Flowering of the Cumberland, invaluable social histories of the cultural heritage of the peoples who have inhabited the Cumberland Valley. She returned to Kentucky often, making the pilgrimage each summer to the Hindman Settlement School in Knott County, Kentucky to teach at the prestigious workshop for Appalachian Writer's. At Hindman she was in her element and among her peers, including James Still and Albert Stewart.

Harriette Simpson Arnow continued to write throughout her life producing The Weedkiller's Daughter (1970), The Kentucky Trace (1974), and Old Burnside (1977). Her husband Harold Arnow died in 1985, and the following year Harriette Simpson Arnow also passed away. They are buried in a secluded area near Somerset, Kentucky.

Harriette Arnow's papers and unpublished writings are held in a special collection at the University of Kentucky. They include her entire collection of short stories, now out of print, and the manuscript of an unpublished novel. These materials are available for scholarly work and research.