Catherine Arthelia Kidwell (January 14, 1921 – February 17, 2002) was an American novelist who began her career in writing late in her life, and was best known for her semi-autobiographical novel Dear Stranger.
Born in Lowry City, Missouri,"A Profile of Nebraska Writer Catherine Kidwell" , Nebraska Center for Writers at Creighton University (accessed 2012-01-24). Kidwell enrolled at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1969, together with her daughter Jane. She culminated her studies with a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1977 at the age of 56. Her thesis, The Woman I Am, was published as a Dell paperback. Kidwell then developed the story further and turned it into the novel Dear Stranger,Hazel Geissler, "'Dear Stranger' began as a master's thesis", St. Petersburg Evening Independent, February 24, 1983, p. 3-B. which Warner Books published in February 1983Edwin McDowell, "When to Market a Book", The New York Times, March 4, 1983. and was chosen as a Literary Guild selection.
She continued to write and to teach writing at Southeast Community College in Lincoln; she died at the age of 81, after a struggle with Parkinson's disease.
Bibliography The Woman I Am (1979) Dear Stranger (1982) "I Couldn't Put It Down": How to Write Quality Fiction in Ten Easy Lessons (1986)
References
"Catherine (Arthelia) Kidwell", Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, entry updated 15 June 2001. Dear Stranger at Kirkus Reviews