She assumed a lot and made silly decisions based on what she 'knew in her gut' to be true about what other people were thinking or what they meant, when she didn't have any proof to back her up.Īnna, I think, was meant to be likable. I found Elizabeth to be smart but her path of self discovery was a bit annoying.

They fall right back into these roles when Elizabeth arrives and she spends the entire book trying to crawl out from under this shadow and oppression that Anna puts on her simply through the power of Anna's hold over everyone around her. They did not get along as children, Elizabeth being the younger, overshadowed, awkward sister and Anna being the prettier, older sister whom everyone adored. Woman at the Window is about a woman, Elizabeth, who is called back home to care for her sister, Anna, who has been in a horrible accident and is now paralyzed from the waist down. Still, I feel compelled to give it 4 stars because it was well written, and because I wanted to keep reading. This is one of the rare books where I really like the story, but I don't really like any of the characters. Hundreds of her stories appeared in such popular magazines as the American, Ladies' Home Journal, People's Home Journal, Midland, McCall's, Pictorial Review, Forum, and Good Housekeeping. The rest of her life is a record of much industry and a great deal of success. She began writing fiction with stories for kindergarten children and four novels for young people and then branched out to adult fiction. White contributed articles about child care to a kindergarten magazine. White gives great credit for her start as a writer to Maude Stewart, a teacher in the kindergarten school who helped her toward an understanding of human character and of the various relationships between people. In 1948 she won the $8,000 prize in the Westminster Press Fiction Contest with her novel No Trumpet Before Him. The couple had two children.ĭuring World War II, as a guest of the British Ministry of Information, White wrote articles about England. After several years as a kindergarten teacher, she married a lawyer. Though the family had very little money, the atmosphere of the home was happy life was filled with 'books, friends, and fun.' By taking many different sorts of jobs, White was able to attend Syracuse University for two years (1911-13) and the Emma Willard Kindergarten School (1913-15). Nelia Gardner White, one of five children of a Methodist minister, lived in several small towns as she was growing up.

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