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189:. A local benefactor arranged to provide her with an annual stipend so she might concentrate on producing a novel. While she completed a draft, Seid was unhappy with it, and the same fate befell her second attempt. Although she felt she had disappointed her benefactor, she did not abandon her writing. To support herself and her family, Seid accepted a position in publicity with the
281:, presents the unhappiness of a woman's existence in 20th-century America. As a child her mercurial mother baffles her and as a young wife her husband's depression destroys her sexual satisfaction. Only in her affair with Paul Randolph, a sculptor, does Catherine realize herself as a woman. But this sexual awakening is a conflation of sex and death.
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Although
Sinclair often is included in discussions of American-Jewish novelists, her interest in the painful psychology of the 20th-century human transcends the boundaries such a category suggests. Her characters must confront their own pasts as well as learn to accept the values and pasts of others.
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The fictional Anna
Hurvitz Teller is, on the other hand, the prototypical strong immigrant woman who overcomes this unhappiness of the 20th-century American female by sheer determination. Perceived by outsiders, the Teller home is perfection; experienced by the participants, the home is a depressed
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for the best novel about
American life. The book dealt with the problems facing second-generation Russian Jewish immigrants, including a disdain for tradition and a shame over family. With the $ 10,000 prize, Seid was able to provide for herself and her family. It also helped that her novel earned
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The fifth child and third daughter of Jewish immigrants, Ruth Seid was born in
Brooklyn, New York on July 1, 1913, the daughter of Nathan Seid and his wife, Ida (Kravetsky). In an effort to escape the blinding poverty in which they lived, the Seid family moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1916, but her
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is the best known of
Sinclair's novels, the later books seem more powerful and sensitive. Sinclair is much more successful when she presents female characters and when she attempts to show the integration of international, emotional, spiritual and religious features of the individual life.
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After graduating at age 17 as the class valedictorian, Seid found employment as a clerk-typist and began attending night classes at
Cleveland College. With the onset of the Great Depression, she became unemployed, and she and her family sought public assistance.
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presents the problems of a changing environment (the influx of blacks into a neighborhood of
Eastern European immigrants) on the children of the community. The emotional trauma of change and the pain of hate are fully experienced by the young Judith Vincent.
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Seid spent five years working for the WPA, writing, editing and doing historical research on areas of interest in Ohio. She eventually became an editor on the
Foreign Language Newspaper Digest. The WPA was one of the most important accomplishments of the
156:—part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal." This government office hired unemployed Americans to work on various government projects. Many of these projects were similar to ones sponsored by the Public Works Administration.
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was based almost entirely on the true story of Seid's close friend
Margaret Lyons Diederich, Margaret's estranged husband, Thomas, and their son, Thomas Jr. (all three natives of Cleveland, Ohio). Catherine Ganly, the heroine in
308:, (Feminist Press, 1993). Seid continued to produce short stories and articles, but her output slowed somewhat as she aged. She succumbed to cancer on April 4, 1995 at age 81 at her home in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.
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parents were unable to find the prosperity they sought. After attending local public elementary schools, she enrolled at John Hay High School, where she concentrated on studies in
English and journalism.
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While employed by the WPA, she spent her free time developing her own projects, writing short stories and articles. In 1937, Seid, using the pseudonym of Jo Sinclair, sold her first story to
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During this period, Seid continued to turn out stories and articles, placing several in prestigious periodicals. The Spring 1941 issue of
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portray the pain of youth, the complexity of the parent-child relationship and the rarity of sexual fulfillment in a woman's life.
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Seid published four novels in her career. Many of her short stories have appeared in anthologies. She also produced the memoir
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297:, but joining a temple does not assuage his pain; acceptance of his mother as a strong, but human and loving woman does. In
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one. In this novel, Sinclair associates Jewishness with pain and deformity and depression with sexual dissatisfaction.
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That year proved to be a turning point for the struggling writer as she also placed stories and articles with
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included "Red Necktie," which many considered to be one of her finer efforts. Her work also appeared in
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Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature: First Supplement
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124:(July 1, 1913 – April 4, 1995) was an American novelist who wrote under the pen name
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respectful reviews. She went on to write three more novels:
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in 1941, where she remained until after World War II.
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Sinclair worked in a factory and on a project for the
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168:, which appeared in the January 1938 issue.
346:, New York, The H. W. Wilson Company, 1955.
154:Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935
454:20th-century American short story writers
357:"Jo Sinclair, Novelist And Memoirist, 81"
109:Learn how and when to remove this message
317:Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
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306:The Seasons: Death and Transfiguration
419:Works Progress Administration workers
223:In 1945, Seid's completed manuscript
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459:Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania
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444:Novelists from Ohio
244:(McGraw, 1955) and
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414:1995 deaths
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393:Categories
328:References
312:Literature
209:The Crisis
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253:Wasteland
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218:Crossroad
122:Ruth Seid
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