Dorothea Canfield, the author of "A Thread Without a Knot," is one of
the most brilliant and forceful writers in America to-day. She was born
in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1879. The daughter of a teacher and writer, her
education was intensive and varied. As a child she learned to speak
several languages. She received her B.A. from Ohio State University and
a Ph. D. from Columbia University. She has studied and traveled
extensively in Europe as well as in America.
Both as a person and as a writer, Dorothea Canfield has been
extraordinarily well liked. As an author she is characterized by
originality, clearness, and the vital quality of human sympathy. She
always writes with a purpose, both in her works of fiction and in her
educational writings. The writer's own ideals and common sense are
revealed in her work and her stories are thoroughly interesting. Under
the name, Dorothy Canfield, she has written some notable fiction. _The
Bent Twig_ is a graphic American novel in which are portrayed the
influences of environment upon a most interesting character.
_Understood Betsy_ is a girl's story of warm sympathy and strong common
sense. _The Real Motive_ is a volume of short stories from which the
story, "A Thread Without a Knot," is taken. The stories in the volume
range in their settings from Paris to a middle western university town.
As the title suggests, they are studies in human motives.
Under her married name, Dorothea Canfield Fisher, she has written some
valuable educational works, as _The Montessori Mother_ and _Mothers and
Children_. During the World War, Mrs. Fisher spent her time in France
working for the relief of those made blind by the war. _Home Fires in
France_ and _The Day of Glory_ are truthful records of Mrs. Fisher's
impressions of life in that tragic, mutilated land.