Who is Zona Gale?

Zona Gale (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938) was an American writer.

Born in Portage, Wisconsin, which she often used as a setting in her writing, she attended Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Later she entered the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from which she received a Bachelor of Literature degree in 1895, and four years later a Master's degree.

After graduation, Gale wrote for newspapers in Milwaukee and New York City. However, before long she gave up journalism to focus on fiction writing. She then published her first novel, Romance Island (1906), and began the very popular series of "Friendship Village" stories.

In 1912, Gale moved back to Portage, which she would call home for the rest of her life, although alternating with trips to New York. In 1920, she published the novel Miss Lulu Bett, which depicts life in the Midwestern United States. She adapted it as a play, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. In the same year, Gale took an active role in the creation of the Wisconsin Equal Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination against women.

Locally, she's being celebrated this weekend:

Nancy Atkinson Breitsprecher, a retired chaplain and former Portage resident, is a prominent expert on Gale's life and works. The Fort Atkinson resident has an extensive collection of writings on the author, which will eventually become part of the Wisconsin State Historical Society's Zona Gale collection at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Breitsprecher will be one of a number of presenters that will speak at Zona Gale's gravesite Saturday morning, and said the issues and lessons that the prominent activist voiced in the 19th century still ring true today.

"They echo down the years. They reform under different masks but they're basically the same," Breitsprecher said. "I think every culture has to ask itself if it's open to the rights of others that may be different from them."
...
"If it wasn't for her, Portage may have forgotten the kind of people that lived here in the early 1900s," (former Portage Mayor Jeff) Grothman said.

(The current Mayor Ken) Jahn said he was excited to participate in the event in his new role as mayor. He hoped the weather would hold out and the turnout would be solid. "I like what it is," Jahn said.

"It's kind of a family, earthy-type event."

-----------------------------------

"The world is beginning.
I must go and help it turn.......!"