OEMLER, Marie Conway

Born 29 May 1879, Savannah, Georgia; died 6 June 1932, Charleston, South Carolina

Wrote under: Mrs. Marie Oemler

Daughter of Richard H. and Helena Browne Conway; married John N. Oemler, 1910

Marie Conway Oemler was born, grew up, and married in Savannah. Her first publications were poems and short stories, which appeared in popular magazines of the day from 1907 through 1917, when Oemler turned from short works to the novel.

Slippy McGee: Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man (1917) seemed unremarkable at first, but went through repeated printings. This was Oemler's most popular novel, and it contains the elements which constitute both the popular appeal and the more serious aspect of her writing. Oemler's success was in part attributable to her ability to exploit the popular taste for sensationalism, sentimentality, and conventional morality.

The sensational element in Slippy McGee is found in the seamy background of the title character. The metamorphosis of Slippy McGee, formerly a successful "cracksman," or burglar, into respectable John Flint is brought about by Father de Rancé, the Catholic priest in the small town of Appleboro, South Carolina. When Flint reverts to McGee in order to retrieve some sexually suggestive letters the heroine, in an adolescent fit of passion, had written to a former sweetheart, suspense is added to sensationalism. The love story between the heroine and the town's crusading young lawyer provides the sentimentality. When this ideally perfect romance is threatened by blackmail, Flint's burglary and heroic denial of his love for Mary Virginia permit its happy consummation, but Oemler alleviates the sentimentality by mixing praise and gently satiric condemnation in her comments about the South and southerners. She also quietly crusades for reform of the deplorable working conditions in southern factories and mills. This mixture of popular convention and serious comment is present in varying degrees in most of Oemler's novels.

Oemler deliberately appealed to the popular taste for sensationalism when she wrote some of her more exciting adventure scenes. There are ghosts, secret chambers, and a near rape (in A Woman Named Smith, 1919); forced marriage, adultery, and reconciliation (in The Purple Heights, 1920); a mysterious "brotherhood" that plots the assassination at Sarajevo, sexual assault, kidnapping, and near torture (in Two Shall Be Born, 1922); kidnapping, wife abuse, and a dramatic jungle rescue (in His Wife-in-Law, 1925); and a labor riot and divorce (in Sheaves: A Comedy of Manners, 1928). At the same time, these and all of her novels contain romances which obey standard conventions of sentimentality and morality.

Oemler's most serious work is her historical, biographical novel, The Holy Lover (1927), about John Wesley's career as a missionary at Savannah, Georgia. Quoting liberally from his personal diary, Oemler dramatizes the dissent created in the colony by his demand for rigid adherence to a strict moral and spiritual code. Although critics regarded this as a hopeful departure in her career, Oemler later reverted to her tried-and-true formula for popular fictions.

As a writer of the fiction women read to fill their leisure hours, Oemler was quite successful. The novels containing a strong suspense plot read more easily today than those which rely more heavily on conventional romances, but even the latter are enlivened by occasional flashes of humor and adventure.

Other Works:

Where the Young Child Was, and Other Christmas Stories (1921). Shepherds (1926). Johnny Reb: A Story of South Carolina (1929). Flower of Thorn (1931).

Bibliography:

Overton, G., The Women Who Make Our Novels (1928). Wynn, W. T., Southern Literature: Selections and Biographies (1932).

Reference works:

TCA

Other references:

NYTBR (29 April 1917, 30 Nov. 1919, 24 Oct. 1920). SR (14 March 1925, 24 April 1926).

—HARRIETTE CUTTINO BUCHANAN