Jane Smiley

My guest on this episode of Writers at Work is Jane Smiley, whose latest novel is LIDIE: THE FURTHER TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF LIDIE NEWTON. If that title rings a bit of a bell, it's because in 1998, Jane published THE ALL-TRUE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF LIDIE NEWTON. That novel, set in the 1850s as our country crept toward a civil war, told of Lidie Harkness of Quincy, Illinois, a young, resolute woman who marries an abolitionist and takes up the cause.

Surrounded by violence, she goes after her killer in enemy territory, disguising herself as a boy to do so. Now, Lidie returns. The country is moved even closer to civil war and Lidie, a widow and bereft, becomes close to her niece, Annie, an actress. When Annie's career takes off, Lidie, her armed protector, joins her. Thus, more travels, more adventure, and more delight.

First published in 1980, Jane has written many novels, 18 I think, several of which are considered among the finest in modern American literature. A THOUSAND ACRES, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. MOO, a five-part satire set largely in a Midwest agricultural college, a trilogy featuring an Iowa farming family that began with SOME LUCK, and others of note.

Among her non-fiction works is CHARLES DICKENS: A LIFE. Jane was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and won the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. She was a longtime professor of English at Iowa State University.