Joseph Hergesheimer
Joseph Hergesheimer was an American author born in 1880 from Pennsylvania Dutch descent. Initially aspiring to be a painter, he studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts but switched to writing following a personal crisis that led him to abandon his artistic pursuits. After a challenging start in his writing career, he found success with his first novel, *The Lay Anthony*, published in 1914, and further solidified his reputation with *The Three Black Pennys* in 1917. Hergesheimer's writing is noted for its blend of realism and romance, often set against historical backdrops, as seen in works like *Java Head* and *The Bright Shawl*. Throughout his career, he also produced short stories and biographical sketches, though he published very little in the two decades leading up to his death in 1954. He spent the majority of his adult life in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he became an influential figure in American literature during his time. Hergesheimer’s works reflect the intricacies of human experience and the impact of historical context on personal narratives.
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Joseph Hergesheimer
Author
- Born: February 15, 1880
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: April 25, 1954
- Place of death: Sea Isle City, New Jersey
American novelist
Biography
Joseph Hergesheimer (HUR-guhs-hi-mur) was born of Pennsylvania Dutch stock in 1880. Shy and frequently ill as a child, he attended Quaker schools and, planning a career as a painter, enrolled at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts in 1897. At the age of twenty-one, he inherited enough money to allow him to live and paint in Italy for a few years, but after suffering a nervous breakdown and returning to the United States he abandoned painting for a career as a writer.
He made slow progress as a writer, and he had to endure lean years of trial-and-error apprenticeship. In 1907, he married Dorothy Hemphill, settled in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and made that city his home for the rest of his writing career. With the appearance of his first novel, The Lay Anthony, in 1914, success followed rapidly and was secured with the novel The Three Black Pennys in 1917. This work, a realistic but exotically styled novel set against the Pennsylvania iron industry, deals with three generations of a single family of iron-masters. Hergesheimer’s best fiction combines realism and romance, usually against historical settings, and includes such books as Java Head, Linda Condon, The Bright Shawl, Balisand, and The Limestone Tree. He also wrote short stories, the historical-biographical sketches in a biography of Richard Brinsley Sheridan titled Swords and Roses; an account of the restored Pennsylvania farmhouse where he made his home, From an Old House; and some critical articles. During the nearly twenty years before his death in 1954, Hergesheimer wrote very little for publication.
Bibliography
Cabell, James Branch. Joseph Hergesheimer: An Essay in Interpretation. Chicago: Bookfellows, 1921.
Clark, Emily. Ingénue Among the Lions: The Letters of Emily Clark to Joseph Hergesheimer. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965.
Gimmestad, Victor E. Joseph Hergesheimer. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
Jones, Llewellyn. Joseph Hergesheimer, the Man and His Books. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920.
Kelly, Leon. “America and Mr. Hergesheimer.” Sewanee Review 40 (1932).
Martin, Ronald E. The Fiction of Joseph Hergesheimer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965.
Swire, H. L. R. A Bibliography of the Works of Joseph Hergesheimer. 1922. Reprint. Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1977.
West, Geoffrey. “Joseph Hergesheimer.” Virginia Quarterly Review 8 (1932).