Harriet Doerr (1910-2002) lit up the literary world at age 73. She lived a full and layered life that she frequently tapped into for inspiration.
Harriet Doerr (1910-2002) lit up the literary world at age 73. She lived a full and layered life that she frequently tapped into for inspiration.
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History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. This is Womanica.
This month, we're highlighting women who've led dynamic lives. Ones that have shifted, evolved and bloomed, often later in life.
Today we’re talking about a woman who lit up the literary world at age 73. She lived a full and layered life that she frequently tapped into for inspiration. Let’s talk about Harriet Doerr.
Harriet was born Harriet Green Huntington on April 8, 1910, in Pasadena, California. She was one of six children who enjoyed a privileged upbringing. The household had nannies, gardeners, and cooks. And Harriet was raised with books of intricate prose and poetry. The family had an appreciation for good literature and good conversation.
Harriet herself wrote many poems in high school. But when she was asked to read some at her graduation, she refused to let them print the poems because they were not up to her standard.
When Harriet was 16, she met Albert Doerr. He was an engineering student at Stanford. On their first date, he took Harriet to a boxing match. Harriet had dressed up – in a flowery dress and a big straw hat. Not exactly the attire for a fight. And because they sat right near the action, in the third row, drops of blood landed on her dress. Still, she was smitten with Albert. So much so that she transferred from Smith College in Massachusetts to Stanford to be with him.
At the time, Stanford was just a means to an end. When Albert graduated, the two got married and Harriet left school without a degree. Shortly after getting married, Albert and Harriet settled in Pasadena and had two children, Michael and Martha. Harriet referred to this period of her life as a nearly perfect era. With her ideal American nuclear family, she enjoyed married life and spending her summers at a beach cottage near Del Mar, California.
Harriet’s second defining period came in 1935. This was when her visits to Mexico began. Albert’s family owned a copper mine in a rural town outside of Mexico City. Harriet and Albert frequently traveled there to oversee the mining business.
Between the family business and Harriet’s newfound love for Mexico, the couple decided to move the family there in the late 1950s. Harriet described these years as “impossibly flawless.” She started to learn Spanish. And she became fascinated by the ways Mexican people approached life and death. She found it to be a mystical place.
Despite being a very beautiful time in her life, it was also a very painful one. Albert was diagnosed with leukemia in 1962. He lived for 10 years before he passed.
A few years later, in 1975, Harriet’s son coaxed her into returning to Stanford. It had been 45 years since she left school to care for her family. She got her bachelor's degree in history and also honed her skills in creative writing classes.
After she graduated, her English professor John L’ Heureux invited her to join Stanford’s renowned creative writing program. Many of the other writing fellows felt Harriet had bypassed the rigorous and competitive application process. But the moment Harriet presented her first piece of work to the class, they recognized she deserved to be there.
Although Harriet was well into her 60s at the time, she got along well with her youthful peers. She’d grab beers and burgers with them after class. And every once in a while, she would host a party at her place for all of them.
Over the years, Harriet had written three short stories that were published in various literary magazines. In 1982, she was awarded the Transatlantic Review-Henfield Foundation Award for those stories. This put her on the radar of some senior editors at Viking Penguin Publishing in London. They advised her to combine the stories into one novel. With the help of professor L’ Heureux, Harriet laid out the stories on her living room floor and shifted them around to create one complete narrative. This would become her first book, “Stones for Ibarra”. She was 73 years old.
The book won the American Book Award for first work of fiction. Although it is fiction, it’s semi-autobiographical. The book follows an American couple who move from their home in San Francisco to Ibarra, Mexico to rehabilitate their family mine.Shortly after their arrival, the husband is diagnosed with leukemia and the pair find themselves looking to the local people and the land for lessons on how to live and die. Harriet is often praised for the descriptive nature of her writing and her eye for evocative detail.
Harriet had a meticulous writing process. She would first “write in her head” and then on paper. She reveled in her alone time because it was her time to be with her thoughts. Harriet was known for her pace of writing a sentence or so an hour. She was not afraid to spend time looking for the exact right words. Harriet was in no rush. She described her writing process like this: “I compare it to the work of a stone cutter, chipping away at the raw material until its just right, or as right as you can get it”.
About a year after publishing “Stones for Ibarra”, Harriet returned to her house in Pasadena and wrote her second novel “Consider This, Señora,” and a collection of essays called “The Tiger in the Grass.”. She used the essay collection to tell the story of her son who was dying of cancer at the time.
Towards the end of her life, Hariet developed glaucoma. She became legally blind, which made it difficult for her to write. This was frustrating for Harriet because she was working on another book – an autobiography. This book would capture her long and varied life in three main sections; her life in Northern California as a wife and mother, the time she spent with Albert in Mexico, and her years as a successful author.
Harriet never got a chance to finish the book. She passed away at her home in Pasadena on November 24, 2002. She was 92 years old.
All month, we’re highlighting dynamos. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister, and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!