{{Short description|American writer (1870–1942)}} {{More citations needed|date=June 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Alice Hegan Rice | image = Alice Hegan (The Bookman, v.40, Jan. 1915).png | alt = | caption = 1915 | birth_name = Alice Caldwell Hegan | birth_date = {{birth date|1870|1|11}} | birth_place = Shelbyville, Kentucky, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1942|2|10|1870|1|11}} | death_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | resting_place = Cave Hill Cemetery<br />Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | other_names = | alma_mater = | occupation = | years_active = | employer = | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse = {{marriage|Cale Young Rice|1902}} | children = | signature = }}
'''Alice Hegan Rice''', also known as '''Alice Caldwell Hegan''', (January 11, 1870 – February 10, 1942) was an American novelist. Her 1901 novel ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' became a play and four films.
==Biography== Alice Caldwell Hegan was born on January 11, 1870, in Shelbyville, Kentucky, to Samuel Watson Hegan and Sallie P. Hegan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alice Hegan Rice - Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss. |url=https://www.online-literature.com/alice-rice/ |access-date=2023-03-10 |website=www.online-literature.com}}</ref> As a child, she would entertain her family members with creative stories that she came up with on the spot. When she was in school, writing was her strongest subject. She had a submission that was published by the newspaper at the age of 15.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}
Rice had a relatively privileged upbringing, but her views on life changed when she went to a mission for Sunday School that was in a slum in Louisville called the "Cabbage Patch". The mission was interrupted by a group of troublesome boys, but luckily Rice was able to defuse the situation by enticing them with a story she just read. For the rest of the mission she continued to tell them crazy stories about gangsters and pirates. This experience introduced her to the world of poverty and the underprivileged. She would later use this new-found knowledge to influence her most widely known novel, ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Morton |first=David |date=April 1918 |title=Alice Hegan Rice: Her Works and Herself |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_book-news-monthly_1918-04_36_8/page/271/mode/1up |journal=Book News Monthly |volume=36 |issue=8 |pages=271–273 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> alt=A white woman of middle age, seated, one hand on chin, wearing a white shirtwaist and glasses, with books on the table before her|thumb|Alice Hegan Rice, from a 1918 publication Several of Rice's earlier works were translated into German, French, Danish, and Swedish, and three (''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'', ''Mr. Opp'', and ''A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill'') were dramatized. Alice married Cale Young Rice, a poet and playwright, on December 18, 1902. They spent most of their life traveling the world and becoming known in the literary scenes of New York and London. She later became a part of a social movement that would help improve the working and living conditions of the poor, which would bring her to helping found the Cabbage Patch Settlement House in Louisville in 1910.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mark Twain {{!}} Biography & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Caldwell-Hegan-Rice |access-date=2023-03-10 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> After living a life full of helping and writing about others, she died on February 10, 1942, at her home in Louisville, Kentucky. She was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/103781096/services-set-this-afternoon-for-mrs/ |title=Services Set This Afternoon for Mrs. Rice |date=1941-02-12 |newspaper=The Courier-Journal |page=20 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2022-06-14}}{{Open access}}</ref>
==List of works== The following 20 books are attributed to Rice:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alice Hegan Rice |url=https://carnegiecenterlex.org/kwhf-2016-alice-hegan-rice/ |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning |language=en-US |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223163546/https://carnegiecenterlex.org/kwhf-2016-alice-hegan-rice/ |archive-date=2024-02-23}}</ref>
* ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (1901) * ''Lovey Mary'' (1903) * ''Sandy'' (1905) * ''Captain June'' (1907) * ''Mr. Opp'' (1909) * ''A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill'' (1912) * ''The Honorable Percival'' (1914) * ''Calvary Alley'' (1917)<ref name=":0" /> * ''Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories'' (1918) * ''Turn About Tales'' (with Cale Young Rice) (1920) * ''Quin'' (1921) * ''Winners and Losers'' (with Cale Young Rice) (1925) * ''The Buffer'' (1929) * ''Mr. Pete & Co. '' (1933) * ''The Lark Legacy'' (1935) * ''Passionate Follies'' (1936) * ''My Pillow Book'' (1937) * ''Our Ernie'' (1939) * ''The Inky Way'' (1940) * ''Happiness Road'' (1942) (posthumous{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}})
==Filmography== *''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (dir. Harold Entwistle, 1914) *''A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill'' (dir. Lynn Reynolds, 1916) *''Mr. Opp'' (dir. Lynn Reynolds, 1917) *''Sunshine Nan'' (dir. Charles Giblyn, 1918) *''Sandy'' (dir. George Melford, 1918) *''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (dir. Hugh Ford, 1919) *''Lovey Mary'' (dir. King Baggot, 1926) *''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (dir. Norman Taurog, 1934) *''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' (dir. Ralph Murphy, 1942)
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{cite book |last1=Henson |first1=Gail Ritchie |last2=Bolin |first2=James Duane |editor-first=John E. |editor-last=Kleber |year=2001 |title=The Encyclopedia of Louisville |chapter=Rice, Alice Caldwell (Hegan) |pages=761–762 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Kentucky |isbn=0-8131-2100-0 |oclc=247857447 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXbYITw4ZesC}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book |author=Boewe, Mary |year=2010 |title=Beyond the Cabbage Patch; the Literary World of Alice Hegan Rice |publisher=Butler Books |location=Louisville |isbn=978-1-935497-33-2 }} {{refend}}
==External links== * [https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt70zp3vtf6x/guide Guide to the Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice letters, 1925–1929; undated] housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center {{Portal|Biography}} * {{wikisource author-inline|Alice Hegan Rice}} * [http://www.online-literature.com/alice-rice/ Alice Hegan Rice in The Literature Network] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20061224022716/http://www.oldlouisville.com/Literature/ Alice Hegan Rice in "Old Louisville in Literature] * {{gutenberg author|id=1471|name=Alice Hegan Rice}} * {{FadedPage|id=Rice, Alice Hegan|name=Alice Hegan Rice|author=yes}} * {{Internet Archive author |name=Alice Caldwell Hegan}} * {{librivox author | id=13188}} * {{Find a Grave|6944763}} * {{Cite book |title=Book News |author=National Book League (Great Britain) |year=1902 |publisher= |isbn= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0eQRAAAAYAAJ&q=alice+caldwell+hegan&pg=PA41 }} - Brief biographical information * {{NIE|title=Rice, Alice (Caldwell) Hegan}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Alice Hegan}} Category:20th-century American novelists Category:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Category:1870 births Category:1942 deaths Category:Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:People from Shelbyville, Kentucky Category:American women short story writers Category:20th-century American short story writers Category:Novelists from Kentucky