“Life has no weapons against a woman such as this.”
~Edna Ferber, American Author, Pulitzer Prize Winner
“…Selina had had the fireplace built five years before and her love of it amounted to fire worship. She had it lighted always on the winter evenings and in the spring when the nights were sharp. She would sit before it at night long after her weary household had gone to bed. Her dog lay stretched at her feet enjoying such luxury in old age as he had never dreamed of. Even people from town, driving by from some rare social gathering or making a late trip to the market saw the rosy flicker of Selina’s fire dancing on the wall through her uncovered windows and warmed themselves by it.”
In 1924, Edna Ferber wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, So Big. In it, Ferber tells the tale of Salina Peake, a simple, ruggedly strong, remarkably self-sufficient woman, who in the face of almost insurmountable odds manages to rescue her family’s farm after her husband dies unexpectedly. After bone-wearying work in the field, Salina would return home in the evening and warm herself by the fire preparing to meet the challenges that tomorrow would certainly bring.
What is perhaps most remarkable about Salina Peake is the simple observation that even though she had been saddled with struggles of the greatest kind, her optimism never wavered–nor did she ever grow faint of heart. And, as Edna Ferber so aptly stated after winning the Pulitzer Prize, “Life has no weapons against a woman such as this.”
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