Edna Ferber, Jewish American Feminist

As a child in Ottumwa, Iowa, Edna Ferber was taunted for being Jewish; as a young woman eager to launch her career as a journalist, she was told that the Chicago Tribune did not hire women reporters. Despite her experience of antisemitism and sexism, she idealized America, creating in her novels an American myth where strong women and downtrodden men of any race prevail. This article focuses on two of her best-selling novels, Show Boat (1926) and Cimarron (1930), which create visions of racial harmony and female strength in a fictional world that purported to be America but was more illusion than reality. Characters in Ferber's novels achieve assimilation and acceptance that was periodically denied Ferber herself throughout her life.