The Estate of Josephine Herbst

In the 1930s, Josephine Herbst (1892–1969) was widely regarded as one of the most important woman writers in America. She was a friend of Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Katharine Ann Porter, and Nathanael West. Yet the conservative climate of World War II and the ensuing Cold War relegated Herbst—like other radical writers of the interwar period—to almost total obscurity. By the 1960s, when Herbst composed the autobiographical essays in THE STARCHED BLUE SKY OF SPAIN AND OTHER MEMOIRS (HarperCollins, 1991, Northeastern University Press, 1999), her political and feminist insights were gaining renewed appreciation. In addition to her journalism and memoirs, she wrote a number of novels, including NOTHING IS SACRED, MONEY FOR LOVE, PITY IS NOT ENOUGH, THE EXECUTIONER WAITS, and ROPE OF GOLD. As Diane Johnson has written, Herbst "remind[s] us of the uses of art and the meaning of a literary life."

THE STARCHED BLUE SKY OF SPAIN AND OTHER MEMOIRS (HarperCollins, 1991)