Margaret Bell Houston
{{Short description|American writer and suffragist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Margaret Bell Houston
| image = Photo of Margaret Bell Houston.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1877}}
| birth_place = Cedar Bayou, Texas
| death_date = {{death date and age|1966|6|22|1877|mf=y}}
| death_place = St. Petersburg, Florida
| nationality = American
| education = St. Mary's College
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Columbia University
| other_names =
| occupation = Writer and suffragist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Margaret Bell Houston (also Margaret Bell Houston Kauffman, 1877 – June 22, 1966) was an American writer and suffragist who lived in Texas and New York. Houston published over 20 novels, most of them set in Texas.{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/amarillo/amarillo-globe-times/1966/07-15/page-11?tag=margaret+bell+houston&rtserp=tags/?pep=margaret-bell-houston&ndt=by&py=1960&pey=1969|title=Houston Descendant to be Buried Today|date=15 July 1966|work=Amarillo Globe Times|url-access=subscription |access-date=15 April 2016|via=Newspaper Archive}} Her work was also published in Good Housekeeping and McCalls in serial format.
Early life
Houston was born in Cedar Bayou, Texas, in 1877, to Sam Houston Jr. and his wife Lucy Anderson. Her paternal grandparents were Sam Houston and Margaret Lea Houston.{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/missouri/moberly/moberly-monitor-index/1931/07-13/page-7?tag=margaret+bell+houston&rtserp=tags/?pep=margaret-bell-houston|title=Sam Houston's Granddaughter Writes Monitor-Index Serial|date=13 July 1931|work=Moberly Monitor Index|url-access=subscription |access-date=15 April 2016|via=Newspaper Archive}} She began writing at age eight.{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/harlingen/harlingen-valley-sunday-star-monitor-herald/1938/10-09/page-5?tag=margaret+bell+houston&rtserp=tags/?pep=margaret-bell-houston|title=Sam Houston's Granddaughter, Noted Poet, Arrives in Valley|last=Glasscock|first=James W.|date=9 October 1938|work=Harlingen Valley Sunday Star Monitor Herald|url-access=subscription |access-date=15 April 2016|via=Newspaper Archive}} She was the sister of Dallas resident Harry Howard Houston (1883–1935).{{cite news |title=Obituary for Harry Howard Houston (Aged 52) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86734792/obituary-for-harry-howard-houston-aged/ |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |date=6 November 1935}}
Education
Houston attended St. Mary's College, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Columbia University.{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho71|title=Houston, Margaret Bell|last=Bard|first=William E.|date=15 June 2010|website=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=16 April 2016}} She was first published in the newspapers, the Brenham Banner and the Dallas News.
Personal life
Houston moved to Dallas and married a businessman named Kauffman.{{Sfn|Enstam|2001|p=31}} In 1913, she was the first president of the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association (DESA).{{Sfn|Enstam|1998|p=158}} Under her tenure as president of DESA, the group grew to around 200 members.{{Sfn|Enstam|2001|p=31}} She also started writing her first novel, Little Straw Wife (1914), during that time.{{Sfn|Enstam|2001|p=32}}
Houston moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1953. Cottonwoods Grow Tall (1958), written after her move to Florida received "critical praise as a work of literary merit".{{Sfn|Enstam|1998|p=157}} Kirkus Reviews called it a "femininely accented story".{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/margaret-bell-houston-2/cottonwoods-grow-tall/|title=Cottonwoods Grow Tall|date=25 September 1958|website=Kirkus Reviews|access-date=16 April 2016}}
Houston died in St. Petersburg on June 22, 1966.{{Cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/el-paso/el-paso-herald-post/1966/07-15/page-8?tag=margaret+bell+houston&rtserp=tags/?pep=margaret-bell-houston&ndt=by&py=1960&pey=1969|title=Granddaughter of Sam Houston Dies; Rites Set|date=15 July 1966|work=El Paso Herald Post|url-access=subscription |access-date=15 April 2016|via=Newspaper Archive}} Her body was transported back to Dallas to be buried at Restland Cemetery.
Selected publications
- {{Cite book|title=Cottonwoods Grow Tall|publisher=Crown Publishers|year=1958|location=New York|oclc=1445014}}
- {{Cite book|title=Yonder|publisher=Crown Publishers|year=1955|location=New York|oclc=6227307}}
- {{Cite book|title=Bride's Island|publisher=Crown Publishers|year=1951|location=New York|oclc=285589}}
- {{Cite book|title=Pilgrim in Manhattan|publisher=D. Appleton-Century Co.|year=1940|location=New York|oclc=6629304}}
- {{Cite book|title=Window in Heaven|publisher=D. Appleton-Century Co.|year=1937|location=New York|oclc=7602976}}
- {{Cite book|title=Hurdy-gurdy, a Novel|publisher=D. Appleton|year=1932|location=New York|oclc=2416057}}
- {{Cite book|title=Moon of Delight|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company|year=1931|location=New York|oclc=3467236}}
- {{Cite book|title=Lanterns in the Dusk|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company|year=1930|location=New York|oclc=2051973}}
- {{Cite book|title=The Singing Heart, and Other Poems|publisher=Cokesbury Press|year=1926|location=Dallas|oclc=1617077}}
- {{Cite book|title=The Witch Man|publisher=Small, Maynard & Company|year=1922|location=Boston|oclc=1817150}}
- {{Cite book|title=Little Straw Wife|publisher=H.K. Fly Company|year=1914|location=New York|oclc=2416054}}
- {{Cite book|title=Prairie Flowers|publisher=R.G. Badger|year=1907|location=Boston|oclc=18373036}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite journal|last=Enstam|first=Elizabeth York|date=2001|title=A Question to Be 'Settled Right': The Dallas Campaign for Woman Suffrage, 1913–1919|url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth35099/m1/32/|journal=Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas|volume=13|issue=2|pages=30–38|access-date=18 April 2016}}
- {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/womencreationofu0000enst|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/womencreationofu0000enst/page/158 158]|quote=margaret bell houston.|title=Women and the Creation of Urban Life: Dallas, Texas, 1843–1920|last=Enstam|first=Elizabeth York|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=1998|isbn=9780890967997}}
{{Sam Houston}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Margaret Bell}}
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni
Category:American women writers
Category:Suffragists from Texas