HIATUS ENCORE: Meridel Le Sueur — The Girl with Rosemary Hennessy

Originally drafted in 1939, the Prohibition-era gangster novel The Girl by Meridel Le Sueur remained unpublished for nearly 40 years. Le Sueur used the intervening decades to transform her work into a powerful narrative, focusing on the lives of marginalized women in Depression-era America. Joining us is Dr. Rosemary Hennessy, a Professor of English at Rice University, whose most recent book, In the Company of Radical Women Writers, rediscovers the political commitments and passionate advocacy of seven writers, including Le Sueur. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Meridel Le Sueur

The Girl by Meridel Le Sueur

“Women on the Breadlines” by Meridel Le Sueur

“The Dread Road” by Meridel Le Seur

“Annunciation” by Meridel Le Sueur

“Women Know a Lot of Things” by Meridel Le Sueur

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Women Talking novel by Miriam Toews

Women Talking film by Sarah Polley

Kansas City by Robert Altman

Badlands by Terrance Malick

“Getaway Car” by Taylor Swift

“My People are My Home” film by Meridel Le Sueur

Lost Ladies of Lit episode No. 106 on Dirty Helen Cromwell’s Good Time Party Girl

John Crawford and West End Press

Workers Alliance