Books with author Ruth Webb

English novelist and essayist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) remains one of the most fascinating and enigmatic writers of this century. The daughter of Leslie Stephen, editor of Oxford's own Dictionary of National Biography, she was educated privately and married critic and journalist Leonard Woolf. Together they founded the Hogarth Press and were at the center of the Bloomsbury circle, which included Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Vita Sackville-West, and many other notable intellectuals, all of whom appear frequently in the narrative. Webb deftly puts into this context Woolf's large and varied literary output--diaries, letters, journalism, essays, short stories, and novels--as well as her constant battles with mental illness that culminated in her suicide by drowning. Woolf's writing, especially Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, A Room of One's Own, and her diaries, are favorites of high school students and adults of all ages. About the series: The British Library is in a unique position when it comes to biographical research, especially concerning British authors. This revered institution boasts the world's largest collection of original manuscripts, as well as an outstanding collection of letters, personal diaries, first editions, and other literary treasures. The titles in this series take full advantage of this vast source of documentary evidence by illustrating each of these lively writers' biographies with state-of-the-art facsimiles of pertinent documents and reproductions of art from the period. Penned by expert biographers, each of these books also contains an index, further reading list, and a chronology of the writer's life.

Frances Becomes a Person recounts the eventful life of author Ruth C. Webb's beloved housekeeper, Frances Elizabeth Lohr. Virtually an outcast, Frances' journey begins at the age of thirteen. The journey on which she continues throughout most of her life will lead her toward the goal of finding a home-and a purpose.Many events make mildly retarded Frances feel alone, unwanted, and unloved. After the devastating death of her father, Frances moves from her family's home to a neighbor's farm. Here, Frances encounters a farmhand who rapes her. As a result, Frances becomes pregnant and eventually marries the farmhand. When worsening seizures force Frances to be moved to a county home, she finds a new purpose-as a kitchen assistant. Just when she is comfortable in her new life, circumstances force Frances to move again, this time to a state hospital school.After twenty-two years of the same routine at the state home, Frances is presented with a new opportunity. Dr. Ruth Webb, a new psychologist in town, needs a housekeeper-and Frances is the top candidate. With Dr. Webb, she finally finds a loving home, where she continues to learn, grow, and contribute to others until her death at age seventy-five.