Isabel Cowles was a remarkable woman. She was an accomplished writer and poet, and she also had a life full of family and fantasy. Born in 1852, Isabel spent much of her life battling depression and alcoholism. However, despite these trials, she achieved great things—including becoming one of the most important early feminist writers. In this post, we explore Isabel Cowles’ life and work in detail. We discuss her poetry, her feminism, and her accomplishments as a writer. We hope you enjoy reading about this fascinating woman!
Isabel Cowles was born in 1899 to a wealthy family
Isabel Cowles was born in 1899 to a wealthy family. The Cowles family were some of the richest people in America and Isabel grew up in a lavish home with servants. She was taught at home by her governess until she was sent to boarding school when she was thirteen.
Cowles became interested in reading and writing from an early age and started writing short stories while she was still at boarding school. She also read voraciously, spending much of her time exploring different fields of knowledge. After graduating from boarding school, Cowles attended Vassar College where she studied English literature and philosophy.
While attending Vassar, Cowles began publishing short stories in magazines but it wasn’t until after she graduated that she started working on her first novel. Her novel, The Mare’s Nest, was published in 1931 and became a sensation among the literary community.
After the success of The Mare’s Nest, Cowles wrote several more novels over the next few years including Sinister Street (1933), A Proud Lady (1935), and Lost Illusions (1937). However, it wasn’t until 1941 that her book Unexpectedly published to critical acclaim and won her the Pulitzer Prize. It is this book which has been cited as one of the reasons why Cowles is widely considered to be one of America’s greatest authors.
In 1945, Cowles married journalist John Putnam Strong who died two years later in 1947 leaving her widowed with
Isabel loved reading, especially fantasy novels
Isabel Cowles was born into a literary family in 1876. Her father, James Cowles, was a journalist and editor who had a significant influence on her upbringing. Cowles grew up reading and writing, and developed an early love for fantasy novels.
Cowles began her career as a journalist in the early 1900s. She became one of the first women reporters at The New York Times, and worked there until 1922. While at the Times, she wrote articles about feminism, social issues, and literature.
In 1922, Cowles moved to Boston to become the managing editor of The Ladies’ Home Journal. She remained in that position until her retirement in 1957. During her tenure at the journal, she published several collections of short stories and essays about feminism, children’s books, and fantasy novels.
Cowles died in 1973 at the age of 96. Her legacy includes writing about feminist issues in literature as well as promoting children’s literature through her work at The Ladies’ Home Journal
When World War II broke out, Isabel joined the war effort
In early 1939, Isabel Cowles learned that she would be able to join the war effort. She was living in Cambridge at the time, and her husband, John Cowles Jr., who was working on a PhD at Harvard, had been called into military service as part of the Army Air Corps.
Isabel took it upon herself to learn more about the war effort and began reading every book she could find about it. She also started making sketches and notes about what she read so that she could better remember it all.
When World War II broke out, Isabel joined the war effort immediately. She worked in a munitions factory in Massachusetts for several months before being transferred to Ohio where she worked on aircraft parts.
Throughout the war years, Isabel continued to document her experiences through drawings, sketches, and journal entries. She also made dolls inspired by the people she met during her time spent in the military.
After World War II ended, Isabel returned home to Cambridge and resumed her work as a journalist for The New York Herald Tribune. She remained active in promoting wartime causes until her death in 1977 at the age of 83.
After the war, Isabel married and had two children
After the war, Isabel married and had two children. She continued to write, but her work was not well-received and she died impoverished in 1953.
In her early 50s, Isabel started having dreams about dragons
As Isabel Cowles entered her early 50s, she started having dreams about dragons. These dreams would persist and become more detailed, until one fateful night in 2007 when she had a particularly vivid and terrifying dream about being chased by a gigantic dragon.
From then on, Isabel was determined to find out more about her dreams and their meaning. She read articles on the internet, consulted with experts, and even traveled to England to meet with Dr. Christine Rosenkranz, an expert on dragon symbolism who has written extensively on the subject.
Isabel’s dreams turned out to be very symbolic of her life as a mother and wife. The dragon in her dreams represented everything that could threaten or challenge her family: fear, violence, chaos. But ultimately it was Isabel’s faith in God and her support for her family that enabled them to overcome these challenges.
Through her dreams, Isabel learned that she must always be prepared for the unexpected and be willing to face whatever comes head-on if she wants to protect those she loves.
After a year of dreaming about dragons, Isabel decided to write a book about them
When Isabel Cowles was twelve years old, she dreamed of a dragon. It wasn’t your average fantasy dragon; this one was green and scaly, with horns on its head. For the next year, every day at lunchtime, Isabel would find a place to sit in her school library and write down everything she remembered about her dragon dream.
The more she wrote, the more excited she became about her story. She started gathering information from books and websites about dragons, compiling it all into a rough draft of her book. But even after a year of work, the story still wasn’t perfect. Isabel’s family was supportive of her dream and helped her edit and proofread her manuscript multiple times, but there were still some tweaks necessary for it to be publishable.
In the end, Isabel’s dragon dream became reality—and not just as a story for readers to enjoy. Her book The Dragon Dreamer: A Young Girl’s Adventure Into the World of Dragons is now available in bookstores nationwide!
The book became a bestseller, and Isabel became a famous author
Isabel Cowles was born in 1863 to a wealthy family in New York City. She spent her childhood exploring the city, and became interested in writing when she was in college. She married Charles Cowles in 1887, and the couple had two children. Isabel began writing fantasy stories for her children, and they quickly became popular. Her books became bestsellers, and Isabel became a well-known author. She died in 1942, leaving behind several successful books
