Meridel Lesueur

About

An acclaimed American author of the 1930s and '40s, she wrote about the Great Depression-era struggles of the poor. She is known for her historical work, North Star Country (1945), as well as for her novel, The Girl (written in the 1930s and published in 1978).

Before Fame

In her younger years, she worked in Hollywood as an actress and writer. In 1927, she sold her first story to a literary magazine.

Trivia

She wrote a famous Great Depression-era article entitled "Women on the Breadlines" (1932).

Family Life

She grew up in Murray, Iowa, as the daughter of parents with socialist and feminist leanings. She grew up around radical farmers and populists.

Associated With

She belonged to a group of proletariat writers that included John Steinbeck.