{{Short description|1903 Novel}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox book | name = The One Woman: A Story of Modern Utopia | image = The One Woman (1903) frontispiece.png | caption = Frontispiece of the first edition of ''The One Woman'' | authors = Thomas Dixon Jr. | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = | language = English | series = | genre = | publisher = Doubleday, Page<ref name="hathitrust">[http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001375266?type[]=author&lookfor[]=%22Dixon%2C%20Thomas%2C%201864-1946.%22&ft= HathiTrust]</ref> | release_date = 1903<ref name="hathitrust"/> | english_release_date = | pages =350<ref name="hathitrust"/> | isbn = | dewey= | congress= | oclc= }} '''''The One Woman: A Story of Modern Utopia''''' is a 1903 novel by Thomas Dixon Jr.
==Plot summary== Reverend Joseph Gordon, a preacher in New York City, clashes with church elders because of his socialist views.<ref name="anthonyslide">Anthony Slide, ''American Racist: The Life and Films of Thomas Dixon'', Louisville, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2004, pp. 118-126 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ng_fyVJVMz4C&dq=%22The+One+Woman%22+dixon&pg=PA119]</ref><ref name="edwardjblum">Edward J. Blum, W. Scott Poole, ''Vale of Tears: New Essays on Religion and Reconstruction'', Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2005, p. 242 [https://books.google.com/books?id=46yZTSn32MsC&dq=%22The+One+Woman%22+dixon&pg=PA242]</ref> Despite being a socialist, his best friend, Mark Overman, is a millionaire Wall Street banker.<ref name="anthonyslide"/>
Meanwhile, Gordon grows apart from his wife, Ruth, who disapproves of his politics.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> After he starts a relationship with Kate Ransom, a wealthy female parishioner, he divorces his wife.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> Kate Ransom donates a million dollars for him to start a new church and thus get rid of the disapproving church elders.<ref name="anthonyslide"/><ref name="edwardjblum"/> The new church is called the "Temple of Man".<ref name="edwardjblum"/>
Unfortunately, Kate Ransom falls in love with his friend Mark Overman.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> The two men have a fight over the woman, and Gordon kills Overman.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> Ransom tells the police about the murder and Gordon is sentenced to the death penalty.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> Meanwhile, his faithful ex-wife asks her childhood lover, now the Governor of New York, to grant him a pardon, which he does.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> Gordon is rescued from execution at the last minute.<ref name="anthonyslide"/>
==Main themes== The novel's primary theme is socialism,<ref name="anthonyslide"/> and it has been described as an 'anti-socialist novel.'<ref name="melvynstokes">Melvyn Stokes, ''D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation : A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time: A History of the Most Controversial Motion Picture of All Time'', Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 52 [https://books.google.com/books?id=fGJFpiTjbKwC&dq=%22The+One+Woman%22+dixon&pg=PA52]</ref>
Another theme is feminism.<ref name="anthonyslide"/><ref name="carydwintz">Cary D. Wintz, 'Introduction', in Thomas Dixon, ''The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'', M.E. Sharpe, 1941, p. xv [https://books.google.com/books?id=5vbDqpn8maoC&dq=%22The+One+Woman%22+dixon&pg=PR15]</ref> However, biographer Anthony Slide explains that it is construed as a by-product of socialism.<ref name="anthonyslide"/>
==Critical reception== The book was widely reviewed and became a best-seller.<ref name="anthonyslide"/>
It has been interpreted as an attack on socialist clergyman George D. Herron, who had recently divorced.<ref name="ralpheluker">Ralph E. Luker, ''The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885-1912'', Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1998, p. 293 [https://books.google.com/books?id=9N44oRFDOaMC&dq=%22The+One+Woman%22+dixon&pg=PA293]</ref>
==Theatrical and cinematic adaptations== The novel was adapted as a play in 1906.<ref name="melvynstokes"/> The first performance took place in Norfolk, Virginia, October of that year.<ref name="anthonyslide"/><ref name="melvynstokes"/> It was performed on a tour in the American South.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> The main character, Frank Gordon, was played by D. W. Griffith.<ref name="melvynstokes"/> His wife, Linda Arvidson, also acted in the play.<ref name="melvynstokes"/> Two months later, they were replaced with cheaper actors.<ref name="melvynstokes"/>
The novel was adapted into a film in 1918.<ref name="anthonyslide"/><ref name="carydwintz"/> The screenwriters were Harry Chandlee and E. Richard Schayer.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> It was directed by Reginald Barker.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> It was shot in May–June 1918 at Paralta Studio on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> Actors included W. Lawson Butt, Clara Williams and Adda Gleason.<ref name="anthonyslide"/> The film, which is now lost, was reviewed in ''Variety''.<ref name="anthonyslide"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}} * {{Wikisource-inline|single=yes|The One Woman (Dixon)}} * [https://archive.org/stream/theonewoman00dixorich#page/n11/mode/2up ''The One Woman''], at Internet Archive * [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009794099 ''The One Woman''], at HathiTrust * [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6037 ''The One Woman''], at Project Gutenberg
{{Thomas Dixon Jr.}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:One Woman: A Story of Modern Utopia, The}} Category:1903 American novels Category:Novels set in New York City Category:Novels about ideologies Category:Books about socialism Category:American novels adapted into films Category:American novels adapted into plays Category:Socialism in the United States Category:Novels by Thomas Dixon Jr.