Katharine Pearson Woods (1853-1923)
The surprising and sensational success of Katharine Pearson Woods’s first novel, Metzerott, Shoemaker (1889) was a key inspiration for the establishment of the WLCB. Woods was born in 1853 in Wheeling, Virginia (as the state was then known), the daughter of Alexander Quarrier Woods, a tobacco merchant, and Josephine Augusta McCabe Woods. Her parents promoted literature and education, which both proved significant influences on Woods’s works. In 1874, she joined the religious order All Saints Sisters of the Poor. Though she had to withdraw due to illness, this experience also influenced her writing. Metzerott, Shoemaker focused on the lives of working-class German and Irish Americans in West Virginia and rooted in the principles of Christian Socialism, which promoted socialism as a logical outcome of Christian belief. Anonymously published, the novel generated widespread curiosity about the author’s identity—which was soon revealed—providing Woods entrance to a successful career as a writer. Her other works include: Web of Gold (1890), From Dusk to Dawn (1892), John: A Tale of King Messiah (1896), The Son of Ingar (1897), and The True Story of Captain John Smith (1901).
Sources
Burr, Nelson. “Katharine Pearson Woods.” Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Edward T. James et al., vol. 3, Harvard UP, 1971, pp. 656–57.
Cole, Jean Lee. “Katharine Pearson Woods (1853-1923).” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers 42.1 (2025): 76-89.
Dorsey, Hester Crawford. “The Author of Metzerott, Shoemaker.” Lippincott’s, Sept. 1890: 375-78.
Reiche, Fanny K. “Katharine Pearson Woods.” Library of Southern Literature Vol. 13, ed. Edwin Anderson Alderman et al., Martin Hoyt, 1909, pp. 5979-99.
Also see entry on Woods in Encyclopedia.com.
Contributors
Ju’waun Morgan