Lena Jane Fry
{{short description|Canadian-American writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lena Jane Fry
| image = LenaJaneFry1905.png
| alt = A light-skinned woman with dark hair in a bouffant updo
| caption = Lena Jane Fry, from a 1905 publication
| birth_name = Selena Jane Hawke
| birth_date = March 6, 1850
| birth_place = Hawkesville, Ontario, Canada
| death_date = October 26, 1938 (aged 88)
| death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = Writer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| children = 5, including Nena Blake
| relatives =
}}
Lena Jane Hawke Fry (March 6, 1850Some sources give her birth year as 1849. – October 26, 1938) was a Canadian-born American writer. Her Other Worlds (1905) is considered an early utopian novel by a North American woman.{{Cite book |last1=Donawerth |first1=Jane L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDFXlhD8PHkC&dq=Lena+Jane+Fry&pg=PA113 |title=Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference |last2=Kolmerten |first2=Carol A. |date=1994-07-01 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2620-6 |pages=113 |language=en}}
Biography
Selena Hawke was born in Hawkesville, Ontario, the daughter of Gabriel Hawke and Jane Machell Hawke. Both of her parents were born in the United States; her father was a lawyer and a local official in Waterloo County.{{Cite news |last=Mills |first=Rych |date=2017-07-15 |title=Seven meetings that decided Waterloo County |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/waterloo-region-record-seven-meetings-th/151277714/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=Waterloo Region Record |pages=36 |via=Newspapers.com}} She married Stephen Fry in 1870,{{Cite web |title=Selena J. "Lena" Hawke |url=https://generations.regionofwaterloo.ca/getperson.php?personID=I68280&tree=generations |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=Waterloo Region Generations}} and had five children (one son died in infancy). They divorced in 1894.{{Cite news |date=1894-02-24 |title=Two Absolute Divorces |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-enquirer-two-absolute-divorc/151270402/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=The Buffalo Enquirer |pages=6}}
In 1907, Fry was drawn into a public controversy when her daughter, actress Nena Blake,{{Cite news |date=1913-08-06 |title=Proper Dressing As Essential as Acting |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-winnipeg-tribune-proper-dressing-as/151278010/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=The Winnipeg Tribune |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}} refused to marry a suitor who spent extravagantly, either on building or destroying her stage career. Nena Blake achieved some Broadway success{{Cite news |date=1913-08-29 |title=Becomes Favorite Broadway Ingenue; Out of Music Comedy Into the Drama |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-becomes-favor/151278224/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}} before she died in 1924.{{Cite news |date=1924-10-22 |title=Jewels of Actress Valued at $25,000 Given to Family |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle-jewels-of-actre/151276222/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |pages=24 |via=Newspapers.com}} Fry died in 1938, at the age of 88, in Chicago.{{Cite news |date=1938-10-27 |title=Lena J. Fry |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-lena-j-fry/151270268/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |work=Chicago Tribune |via=Newspapers.com|pages=14}}
Publications
Fry's utopian novel{{Cite web |title=Pre-1950 Utopias and Science Fiction by WomenAn Annotated Reading List of Online Editions of Speculative Fiction. |url=https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_collections/utopias/utopias.html#1900 |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=Digital Library, University of Pennsylvania}}{{Cite book |last=Rooney |first=Charles J. |url=http://archive.org/details/dreamsvisionsstu0000roon |title=Dreams and visions : a study of American utopias, 1865-1917 |date=1985 |publisher=Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-313-23727-0 |pages=106}} Other Worlds (1905) is set in a communitarian colony{{Cite book |last=Seed |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l7JrCBSaEaMC&dq=Lena+Jane+Fry&pg=PA199 |title=Anticipations: Essays on Early Science Fiction and its Precursors |date=1995-05-01 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-2640-4 |page=199|language=en}} on a planet named Herschel, after William Herschel.{{Cite web |title=SFE: Fry, Lena Jane |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fry_lena_jane |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction}} The book was dedicated to her three daughters.
- Other Worlds: A Story Concerning the Wealth Earned by American Citizens and Showing How It Can Be Secured to Them Instead of to the Trusts (1905){{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Other Worlds, by Lena Jane Fry |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64241/64241-h/64241-h.htm |date=1905 |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=Project Gutenberg}}
- "What the Mother Says" (1907){{Cite news |date=1907-05-19 |title=What the Mother Says |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch-what-the-mother/151270666/ |access-date=2024-07-13 |via=Newspapers.com |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |pages=59}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{ISFDB name|231427}}
- Iva Balic, [https://www.proquest.com/docview/304962685 "Always painting the future: Utopian desire and the women's movement in selected works by United States female writers at the turn of the twentieth century"] (PhD dissertation, University of North Texas 2009); includes discussion of Fry's Other Worlds.
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Category:Canadian women novelists