Kathleen Winsor (October 13, 1915 – May 26, 2003) was an American author. She is best known for her first work, the 1944 historical novel Forever Amber. The novel, racy for its time, became a runaway bestseller even as it drew criticism from some authorities for its depictions of sexuality. She wrote seven other novels, none of which matched the success of her debut.

Early life

Winsor was born on October 13, 1915, in Olivia, Minnesota, but raised in Berkeley, California. Her father was a real-estate dealer. At the age of 18, she made a list of her goals for life. Among those was her hope to write a best-selling novel. She graduated in 1938 from the University of California, Berkeley. During her school years, she married a fellow student, All-American college football player Robert Herwig. In 1937, she began writing a thrice-weekly sports column for the Oakland Tribune. Although that job only lasted a year, Winsor remained at the newspaper, working as a receptionist. She was fired in 1938 when the newspaper chose to trim its workforce.

Career

Forever Amber

Winsor became interested in the Restoration period through her husband. Herwig was writing a paper for school on Charles II, and, out of boredom, Winsor read one of his research books.

Her husband joined the military at the outbreak of World War II and spent five years with the United States Marines fighting in the Pacific theatre. It sold over 100,000 copies in its first week of release, and went on to sell over three million copies.

Notes

References

  • Guardian Unlimited obituary on Kathleen Winsor
  • Lise Jaillant, "Subversive Middlebrow: The Campaigns to Ban Kathleen Winsor’s Forever Amber in the United States and in Canada." International Journal of Canadian Studies (Special issue on Print Culture and the Middlebrow, ed. Michelle Smith & Faye Hammill) 48 (2014): 33–52.
  • Guardian Unlimited book review of Forever Amber by Elaine Showalter, August 2002.
  • Time magazine book review, October 1957, of America, With Love.