Paterson, Isabel (c. 1886–1961)

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Paterson, Isabel (c. 1886–1961)

Canadian-born literary critic and novelist. Born Isabel Bowler on Manitoulon Island, Lake Huron, Canada, around 1886; died in 1961; daughter of Francis Bowler and Margaret (Batty) Bowler; attended public schools in Mountain View and Cardston, Alberta, Canada; married Kenneth Birrell Paterson.

Selected works:

The Shadow Riders (1916); The Magpie's Nest (1917); The Singing Season (1924); The Fourth Queen (1926); The Road of the Gods(1930); Never Ask the End (1932); The Golden Vanity (1934); If It Prove Fair Weather (1940).

Described as fiercely opinionated, decidedly Tory, and disarmingly humorous, Isabel Paterson was a literary critic for the New York Herald Tribune for many years, writing the popular column, "Turns With a Bookworm."

Of Irish heritage, she was born Isabel Bowler around 1886 on Manitoulon Island, Lake Huron, Canada, and educated in public schools. She worked briefly as a secretary with the Canadian Pacific Railroad before immigrating to the United States, where she worked for newspapers in Spokane and Vancouver, Washington. She then went to New York, writing for the American and for Hearst's Magazine, taking up her post at the Herald Tribune in 1922. Paterson, who had married Kenneth Birrell Paterson (sources hint that it was not an enduring union), wrote under her married name.

In addition to literary criticism, Paterson wrote a number of novels, which, by her own admission, were brought forth with great agony. "Anyone writing a novel is inclined to feel that it would be better never to have been born," she wrote while in the throes of producing If It Prove Fair Weather (1940). "I've had a number of novels published already. One of them is good, and two others what I'd call fair. The one now being written is of course superlative. An outstanding feature … is that it has no social significance whatever." When not at work, Paterson, who made her home in the country, was a passionate gardener.