“Bred in the Bone,” in The New York Press’s Sunday Magazine,

Zoe Anderson Norris.

“Bred in the Bone,” in The New York Press’s Sunday Magazine,

September 10, 1899.

Cover art by Clarence Frederick Underwood. 

One of Zoe’s many syndicated stories set in rural Kansas. The elderly heroine, abandoned by her husband and son—both are thieves and fugitives—lives in a primitive hut, fearing the prairie winds “will get into my brain and addle it.” Her son returns, briefly hides from lawmen in the cellar, then absconds again. Lonelier than ever, she grieves under a bowl of stars “glimmering so tranquilly above all earthly tempests, whether they be of winds or storms or sorrows.” 

From the Collection of Eve M. Kahn.