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Ruth Suckow

American writer (1892-1960)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ7383230
Source-derived summary

Ruth Suckow (August 6, 1892 – January 23, 1960) was an American regionalist writer from Iowa. She wrote novels and stories. According to one critic, "Suckow’s portrayal of the lives of ordinary “folks” enables modern readers to empathize with her characters, many of whom were Midwesterners. Her poetic descriptions of the Iowa farmland evoke the artistic realism of Grant Wood paintings and place her squarely in the Midwestern regionalist milieu of the interwar years."

Early life

Ruth Suckow was born in Hawarden, a small town in Sioux County on the Big Sioux River in far northwestern Iowa, where her father was the pastor of the Congregational Church.

After leaving Hawarden in early 1898, the Suckow family lived in a number of towns in northern Iowa. In 1907, Suckow's father accepted a position at Grinnell College. Suckow graduated from Grinnell High School in 1910, and entered the college that fall. While a student at Grinnell, she became involved in dramatics.

Suckow left Grinnell College to study at the Curry School of Expression in Boston from 1913 to 1915. Her novel The Odyssey of a Nice Girl (1925) reflects that experience.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Ruth Suckow” as american writer (1892-1960). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ruth, Suckow and American.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1892, 1960, 1898, 1907—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1892-08-06. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Ruth, Suckow and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ruth Suckow”, the useful work is to connect “american writer (1892-1960)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7383230. VIAF identifies the subject as 4022612. The Library of Congress control number is n88117683. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1892, 1960, 1898 and 1907.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ruth Suckow”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ruth Suckow primary sources, Ruth Suckow archive and Ruth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ruth Suckow”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ruth Suckow” 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.