1919 - A Kansas Tale Part II: An American Tale

Dorothy Dierks Hourihan tells an astonishingly broad and poignant story in 1919 - A Kansas Tale, and the progression in history with 1928 An American Tale, painting a convincing picture of the small town on the Kansas plains in the years immediately following World War I. Nan Heath (arguably the author's finest creation), is first seen as she watches the bodies of her parents and sister being removed from their burnt-out home. Nan's progress from these bitter depths is the main current of the book; her relationship with Ned, and their eventual marriage, is a classic love story, full of awakening and triumphs. Along the way, Hourihan weaves an intricate plot from the lives of two families who had settled in Kansas, incorporating informative and religious intolerance, and and women's suffrage. Her mastery of craft is as noteworthy as her content is striking. The realities of life, often gruesome and depressing, are examined neither with morbid fascination or fainthearted aversion, but rather with the kind of observant compassion and lapidary attention to detail one would expect from an acclaimed painter, which indeed is Hourihan's vocation when she is not engaged in writing narrative fiction of the highest order.

Dorothy Dierks Hourihan tells an astonishingly broad and poignant story in 1919 - A Kansas Tale, and the progression in history with 1928 An American Tale, painting a convincing picture of the small town on the Kansas plains in the years immediately following World War I. Nan Heath (arguably the author's finest creation), is first seen as she watches the bodies of her parents and sister being removed from their burnt-out home. Nan's progress from these bitter depths is the main current of the book; her relationship with Ned, and their eventual marriage, is a classic love story, full of awakening and triumphs. Along the way, Hourihan weaves an intricate plot from the lives of two families who had settled in Kansas, incorporating informative and religious intolerance, and and women's suffrage. Her mastery of craft is as noteworthy as her content is striking. The realities of life, often gruesome and depressing, are examined neither with morbid fascination or fainthearted aversion, but rather with the kind of observant compassion and lapidary attention to detail one would expect from an acclaimed painter, which indeed is Hourihan's vocation when she is not engaged in writing narrative fiction of the highest order.

Dorothy Dierks Hourihan was born in Georgia. Educated at the University of Colorado (BFA) and Columbia University (MA and Doctorate of Education), she retired from a post as Dean of Arts and Science from New Jersey City University. Her career as a professor of fine arts, as well as a painter in her own right - a solo exhibition (her eighth) recently occurred in New York City - infuses her book with a knowledge of painting, and drawing from an artist's perspective. When not pursuing her twin interests in writing and painting, the author, who lives in Naples, Florida, enjoys playing golf and travelling.