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Anne Boyd Rioux

Biography

Anne Boyd Rioux

Anne Boyd Rioux, a professor at the University of New Orleans, the author of CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON: Portrait of a Lady Novelist, and the editor of MISS GRIEF AND OTHER STORIES, has received two National Endowment for the Humanities Awards, one for public scholarship. She lives in New Orleans.

Anne Boyd Rioux

Books by Anne Boyd Rioux

Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters
by Anne Boyd Rioux - Literary Criticism, Nonfiction

Soon after its publication, LITTLE WOMEN became an enormous bestseller and one of America’s favorite novels. Its popularity quickly spread throughout the world, and the book has become an international classic. When Anne Boyd Rioux read the novel in her 20s, she had a powerful reaction to the story. Through teaching the book, she has seen the same effect on many others. In MEG, JO, BETH, AMY, Rioux recounts how Louisa May Alcott came to write LITTLE WOMEN, drawing inspiration for it from her own life. Rioux also examines why this tale of family and community ties, set while the Civil War tore America apart, has resonated through later wars, the Depression, and times of changing opportunities for women.

Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist
by Anne Boyd Rioux - Biography, Nonfiction

Constance Fenimore Woolson, who contributed to Henry James’ conception of his heroine Isabelle Archer in THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, was one of the most accomplished American writers of the 19th century. Yet today the best-known (and most misunderstood) facts of her life are her relationship with James and her probable suicide in Venice. This first full-length biography of Woolson provides a fuller picture that reaffirms her literary stature. Uncovering new sources, Anne Boyd Rioux evokes Woolson’s dramatic life.