Jessamyn West McPherson Wins More Literary Laurels With Quaker Stories

Yorba Linda Star December 29 1944 page 3   

Jessamyn West McPherson, by long odds the most distinguished literary figure who has ever lived for any length of time in northern Orange County, has added this fall considerably to her literary fame.

She has run her score of stories published in the Atlantic Monthly to three since July, she has a story in the December number of the swank style magazine, Madamoiselle, she soon will have a story in Harper's, one of her stories has been selected by Martha Foley for her "Best Short Stories of 1944" and she will soon have a collection of her stories published in book form.

Her story in the current issue of Madamoiselle has a specific Yorba Linda setting. The description -- "the brown, cactus-covered foothills, the open sky, the rolling orange orchards" -- are unmistakable.

Mrs. McPherson, who writes under her maiden name, is the elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eldo West. Mr. West will be remembered by all older residents of Yorba Linda as superintendent for several years of the Yorba Linda Water company.

Through both her father and her mother she is a birthright Friend, her grandfather Milhouse, having been one of the early backers of the Yorba Linda Friends church. This Quaker background gives all Mrs. McPherson's stories their peculiar flavor, but the wide-spread recognition she has had in a few short years, indicates her stories have merits other than a quaint background.

Mrs. McPherson was "knocked down by tuberculosis" while studying for a doctor's degree and made, she says, a "horizontal approach" to literature.

Her husband, Dr. Maxwell McPherson, is superintendent of the high school and junior college at Napa.

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