Making Hero Strong: Teenage Ambition, Story-Paper Fiction, and the Generational Recasting of American Women's Authorship

Abstract

s popular story paper, the True Flag, opens with a memorable scene of teenage comradery and ambition. In an academy boardinghouse at the end of summer term, three girls have gathered for one last nostalgic night together before leaving school forever. Hero Strong lounges in an armchair by a window, wearing a loose velvet outfit, sporting a heavy signet ring on her finger, and smoking a perfumed cigarito, while her friends, twin sisters Jennie and Julie Leland, sing together to the accompaniment of a guitar. Hero's short, curly hair is ''parted on one side, like a boy's,'' and when she joins the chorus, it is in a ''deep contralto voice'' that adds strength to the higher tones of the sisters. After engaging in some playful banter, the three intimate friends talk seriously about their future plans. ''I must be wealthy and famous-then famous and wealthyand then both together,'' Hero exclaims, referring to her dream of becoming a successful author. ''This is the burden of my song-fame and