Daughter of Earth
book by Agnes Smedley
Daughter of Earth (1929) is an autobiographical novel by the American author and journalist Agnes Smedley. The novel chronicles the years of Marie Rogers's tumultuous childhood, struggles in relationships with men (both physical and emotional), time working with the Socialist Party, and involvement in the Indian independence movement.
The novel opens in Missouri, while subsequent chapters take place in Arizona, New Mexico, New York City, and San Francisco. Born into a poor farming family, Marie is regularly physically abused by her mother. Her father owns a farm, but he takes several temporary jobs in order to supplement his income. A maiden aunt (spinster) who works as a laundress and prostitute provides some financial assistance to her impoverished relatives. After Marie's father kicks the aunt out of the family, Marie resorts to theft to provide for her family. As a teenager, Marie is briefly engaged to her older sister's widower. She breaks off the engagement, and starts working as a teacher while still in her teens. Marie leaves her teaching job to take care of her dying mother, and then works as a traveling saleswoman.
“Daughter of Earth” enters the record as book by Agnes Smedley. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Daughter, Earth and book can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5227913. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1929.
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This entry incorporates text from “Daughter of Earth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.