This file includes 17 books by Gertrude Atherton: The Avalanche, The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories, Black Oxen, The Californians, The Conqueror, The Doomswomen, The Gorgeous Isle, The Living Present, Rezanov, Senator North, The Sisters-in-Law, Sleeping Fires, The Spinners’ Book of Fiction, Splendid Idle Forties, The Valiant Runaways, What Dreams May Come, and The White Morning. According to Wikipedia, ‘Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (October 30, 1857 – June 14, 1948) was an American writer… After her husband’s death, in 1887, she was free to pursue her writing career as a protégée of Ambrose Bierce, eventually writing 60 books and numerous articles and short stories. She first submitted The Randolphs of Redwood: A Romance (March 31, 1883-May 5, 1883) to The Argonaut under the pseudonym Asmodeus. When she revealed to her family that she was the author, it caused her to be ostracized. In 1888, she left for New York, leaving Muriel with her grandmother, and London, and would eventually return to California. Atherton’s first signed novel, What Dreams May Come, was published in 1888 under the pseudonym Frank Lin… Atherton explored the history and culture of Spanish California in Monterey, San Juan Bautista, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara. From these experiences came Before the Gringo Came (1894)… She is best remembered for her ‘California Series, ‘ several novels and short stories dealing with the social history of California. The series includes The Splendid, Idle Forties (1902); The Conqueror (1902), which is a fictionalized biography of Alexander Hamilton; and her sensational, semi-autobiographical novel Black Oxen (1923), about a middle-aged woman who miraculously becomes young again after glandular therapy. The latter was made into a silent movie in 1923.’