Bess Streeter Aldrich

Bess Streeter Aldrich was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She graduated from the Iowa State Normal School with a teaching certificate, and later pursued an advanced degree in education. She and her husband moved to Nebraska in 1907.

In 1911, Aldrich entered and won a short story contest in Ladies’ Home Journal. She went on to have a long and prolific career, often writing about small town life on the Nebraska prairie.

Two of her stories about teachers were adapted to film. In between these adaptations, in 1935, Aldrich worked briefly for Paramount Pictures on a script called “Pioneer Woman” (probably an adaptation of her novel A Lantern in Her Hand), but the studio decided not to make the film.