Resources for further study of Katharine Pearson Woods
Biographical sources (listed chronologically by date of publication)
N. H. D. “The Author of ‘Metzerott, Shoemaker.’” Boston Evening Transcript, Feb. 28, 1890: 6. This article broke the news of Woods’s identity as the author of Metzerott *and was widely reprinted nationwide.
“Miss Woods of Wheeling.” Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Mar. 31, 1890: 3, reprinted from the Baltimore Sun of Mar. 29, 1890. In this biographical profile of Woods, the author, who rarely agreed to be interviewed, discusses events and issues that influenced the writing of Metzerott, Shoemaker.
“Myrtle Assembly: Working Girls of Baltimore Hold an Anniversary Fete.” Baltimore Sun, May 24, 1890: 6. Article includes a long excerpt of the talk given by Woods at this meeting, articulating the important role to be played by women in the labor movement.
“The Nationalist Club: An Address Upon Its Peculiar Principles by Miss K. P. Woods.” Baltimore Sun, July 16, 1890: 6. Account of Nationalist Club meeting in Baltimore, including a long excerpt from the address given by Woods.
“Church and State”: The Position of Women Described by Katharine P. Woods.” Baltimore Sun, Jan. 21, 1891. Recounts Woods’s presentation of her paper on women’s rights and suffrage, “Church and State,” which elicited a strong response both locally and nationwide.
“Timely Topics Thoughtfully Discussed for Careful Readers.” New Dominion (Morgantown, WV), Feb. 7, 1891: 3. An ally of Woods using the pseudonym “Barbarian” discusses a controversial paper promoting female suffrage presented by Woods at a meeting of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore.
“Woman as a Voter: More Letters in the Controversy Created by Miss Woods’s Article.” Baltimore Sun, Feb. 10, 1891: 3.
“Woman’s Place in the World: The Question Still Agitates the Mind and Produces a Shower of Ink.” Baltimore Sun, Feb. 16, 1891: 6.
“A Talented Writer.” Cloverdale Reveille (CA; reprinted elsewhere), Mar. 5, 1892: 4. This profile of Woods was reprinted in other newspapers nationwide, and includes details about Woods’s physical appearance (“pretty, willowy … with a delicate, spirituelle face”) and adolescent/early adult years in Baltimore.
“To Hear ‘Story Mother’: Children Registering for Miss Katharine P. Woods Talk.” Baltimore Sun, Sept. 30, 1906: 20. *News article recounting visit by “famous writer” Woods to the Enoch Pratt Branch Library at St. Paul and 26th Streets in Charles Village.
“Woman Writer Dies.” Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 20, 1923: 6. This brief obituary, in slightly different forms, appeared in US newspapers in the days following Woods’s death on Feb. 19, 1923. This one mentions Woods’s magazine writings and reviews in addition to some of her novels.
Turner, Ella May. “Katharine Pearson Woods.” Stories and Verse of West Virginia, ed. Ella May Turner (Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1923), 301-302. Biographical profile of Woods; also includes two poems, “A Song of Love and Summer” and “A Song of Sunset.”
Turner, Anne M. “Katharine Pearson Woods.” American National Biography, ed. Susan Ware (NY: Oxford University Press, 2000): 812-813.
Historical contexts for Metzerott, Shoemaker
Duffy, Sean. “Music in the Air: Wheeling’s 1906 Saengerfest Revisited.” Archiving Wheeling, accessed Oct. 25, 2022.
Fones-Wolf, Ken. “Caught Between Revolutions: Wheeling Germans in the Civil War Era.” Originally published in Transnational West Virginia: Ethnic Communities and Economic Change, 1840-1940. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2002. Provides demographic and sociological information about the German community in Wheeling that provides the setting for Woods’s novel.
Nodlehs, Selrahc M. “Short Talks with a Workingman, No. 1.” Topeka Daily Capital (Kansas), Aug. 5, 1890: 4. This fictional dialogue imagines a laborer’s views on socialism and includes references to both Edward Bellamy’s novel _Looking Backward_ and _Metzerott, Shoemaker_.
“Recreation and Amusement in Wheeling, 1886.” Ohio County Public Library, accessed Oct. 25, 2022. *Includes information about the German saengerfests, maennerchors, and public halls that figure significantly in Metzerott, Shoemaker.
Woods and the beginnings of the WLCB
“Visitors to the Shore.” Philadelphia Times, July 31, 1890: 5. This bit of social news includes an interview with Hester Crawford Dorsey, who is visiting the family of President William Henry Harrison (whose daughters were her friends). Dorsey takes the opportunity to promote both the newly-formed WLCB and the work of Katharine Pearson Woods.
“Woman’s World and Work,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, Mar. 1, 1891: 13. Includes account by Isabel Finley, social correspondent for the Times-Picayune, of her attendance at the WLCB meeting at which Woods presented her paper on female suffrage.
Reviews of Metzerott, Shoemaker (listed chronologically)
San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 29, 1889: 7.
Boston Globe, Oct. 14, 1889: 3.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), Oct. 20, 1889: 8.
“New Books at the Mechanics’ Library.” Altoona Tribune, Nov. 4, 1889: 4.
Boston Globe, Nov. 10, 1889: 22. This lengthy early review helped draw attention to Woods’s novel.
San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 10, 1889: 7.
“Who is This Baltimore Authoress?” Charlotte Observer (NC), Nov. 22, 1889: 1. This reprinting of an article from the Baltimore Sun was also reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 26, 1890 (p. 7) and likely in many other places as well.
Times-Democrat (New Orleans, LA), Feb. 7, 1890: 16.
Kansas City Star (MO), Feb. 12, 1890: 4. This short review was reprinted in various newspapers at roughly the same time and may have been syndicated.
Columbus Daily Telegram (NE), Apr. 8, 1890: 2.
Kansas City Times (MO), May 19, 1890: 5.
St. Joseph Gazette (MO), signed by Joseph R. Buchanan, May 21, 1890: 7.
Buffalo Commercial (NY), July 5, 1890: 4.
Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), July 24, 1890: 4.
Indianapolis Journal, July 25, 1890: 3.
Liverpool Mercury (England), Aug. 13, 1890: 7.
Glasgow Herald (Scotland), Feb. 26, 1891: 9.
Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 31, 1890: 13.
Morning Post (London, England), Sept. 1, 1890: 3.
Sheffield and Rotherham Independent (Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England), Feb. 26, 1891: 2.
“Southern Literature.” Syndicated article reprinted in newspapers nationwide, including the Lawrence Daily Journal (Kansas), Dec. 3, 1891: 3.
