{{short description|American writer}} {{for|the medical librarian|Mildred M. Jordan}} '''Mildred Jordan''' (March 18, 1901 – October 23, 1982) was an American writer and playwright. Born in Chicago, she worked at the Hull House<ref name=devlin>{{cite news|url=http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=391555|title=French royalty found refuge nearby|last=Devlin|first=Ron|date=June 8, 2012|newspaper=Reading Eagle|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref> before relocating to Reading, Pennsylvania after her marriage.<ref name=reed>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_ceAotMs-8C&pg=PA349 |title=''Berks County Women in History: Profiles''|last=Reed|first=Irene|date=2005|publisher=Tudor Gate Press|page=17|isbn=9780974094960|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref> Her first novel, ''One Red Rose Forever'', which was based on the history of Lancaster County, was rejected by twenty-two publishers before finally appearing in 1941.<ref name=delbanco>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/speakingofwritin00delb |url-access=registration |title=''Speaking of Writing: Selected Hopwood Lectures''|last=Delbanco|first=Nicholas|date=1990|publisher=University of Michigan Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/speakingofwritin00delb/page/117 117]|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref> Her subsequent books often focused on the lives of Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants to America.<ref name=devlin/><ref name=hg/>
A 1954 review of her play ''The Wonderful Cornelia'' said she was "one of the nation's best-known novelists",<ref name=lph>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19540325&id=llUvAAAAIBAJ&pg=6754,3206566|title=Mildred Jordan's Play Wins Applause of First Nighters|last=L.P.H.|date=March 25, 1954|newspaper=Reading Eagle|page=20|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref> John Updike said her "pen name, Mildred Jordan, masked her true identity as an unmeetably rich industrialist's wife".<ref name=updike>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/06/lifetimes/updike-v-writers.html|title=Writers I Have Met|last=Updike|first=John|date=August 11, 1968|newspaper=The New York Times|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref>
In addition to her own writing, Jordan also served as the editor of the ''Berks County Historical Magazine''.<ref name=hg>{{cite web|url=http://www.hgbooks.com/home/hgb_mjordan.htm|title=Mildred Jordan (Bausher) 1901-1982|date=2005|publisher=HGBooks.com|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref> She received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Albright College in 1979.<ref name=dreese>{{cite web|url=http://acpast.pbworks.com/w/page/31205577/Mildred%20Jordan%20Finding%20Aid|title=Mildred Jordan Finding Aid|last=Dreese|first=Sydney|date=2012|publisher=Albright College Archives & Special Collections|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref>
Jordan was represented by the literary agent Annie Laurie Williams,<ref name=lph/> whose other clients included Margaret Mitchell, John Steinbeck, and Truman Capote.<ref name=denison>{{cite web|url=http://denisonalumniassociation.com/annielaurie.htm|title=Annie Laurie Williams, Literary Agent|date=April 11, 2013|publisher=Denison High School Alumni Association|accessdate=2014-08-26}}</ref>
==Bibliography==
===Novels=== *''One Red Rose Forever'' (1941) *''Apple in the Attic'' (1942) *''The Shoo-fly Pie'' (1944) *''I Won't, Said the King'' (1945) *''Asylum for the Queen'' (1948) *''Miracle in Brittany'' (1950) *''Echo of the Flute'' (1958)
===Plays=== *''The Wonderful Cornelia'' (1954) *''Apple in the Attic'' (1962) (with Lucile Logan)
===Nonfiction works=== *''Proud to be Amish'' (1968) *''The Distelfink Country of the Pennsylvania Dutch'' (1968)
==See also== *Thomas Zimmerman
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Mildred}} Category:20th-century American novelists Category:Writers from Chicago Category:Northwestern University alumni Category:Wellesley College alumni Category:1901 births Category:1982 deaths Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:Novelists from Illinois