She Took to the Woods

If you’ve enjoyed reading books written by Louise Dickinson Rich, you might consider learning more about her life and writing career.  “She Took to the Woods” is a comprehensive biography of Louise Dickinson Rich, written by Alice Arlen.

The book starts out with a detailed biography of Rich’s life, beginning at childhood.  Arlen is very thorough, and includes daily information from Rich’s diary, which she kept religiously.  Arlen also explains certain parts of the diary and provides perspective based on other knowledge learned during her research of Rich’s life.  This section comprises 180 pages.

The second part of the book focuses on Rich’s writings, reprinting over 20 of her previously published stories.  Arlen provides some commentary at the beginning of each story, which gives great insight.

Finally, the third part of the book contains unpublished works of Louise Dickinson Rich.  Since they haven’t been published elsewhere, it’s kind of interesting to have this material put in a book for the first time.

The book also contains a complete bibliography of books and articles published by Rich.

Louise Dickinson Rich was an incredibly accomplished Maine writer.  Alice Arlen does Rich and her works justice with this quality biography.  It isn’t the most entertaining read, but if you like reading Rich’s books and stories, it just may be worth picking up this book and gaining a fuller understanding of Louise Dickinson Rich.