Creator
Zoe Anderson Norris.
Title
“The Deformed Thumb,” The Puritan,
Date
March 1899.
Description
The heroine, a struggling freelance writer, injures her thumb while typing short story manuscripts that magazines reject. She joylessly mines her life experiences, “in an eternal search for copy,” putting “every thought, sentiment, emotion … beneath a sort of microscope.” A dependable boyfriend rescues her from poverty—a rare happy ending in Zoe’s fiction. The Puritan (1897-1901) was one of Zoe’s several outlets owned by pulp tycoon Frank A. Munsey.
Source
From the Collection of Eve M. Kahn.