“The Bonney Family,” the third novel of Cedar Falls writer Ruth Suckow, will be discussed and celebrated Saturday, June 7 at 1 p.m. at the Cedar Falls Public Library.  The public is invited to this free event to be led by Dr. Barbara Lounsberry, University of Northern Iowa Emeritus Professor of English and current President of the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association.

According to Lounsberry, Suckow drew on her own life as an Iowa minister’s daughter for “The Bonney Family,” which portrays a Congregational minister and his family—including his daughter, Sarah.

Suckow's own father, Congregational minister William Suckow, married Opal Swindle of Cedar Falls in 1922, after Ruth's mother died.  Ruth was 30 at the time and lived with the couple in Cedar Falls during the winter of 1922-1923. 

In 1929, Ruth married Ferner Nuhn of Cedar Falls.   They lived in Cedar Falls in 1931 and 1932, writing books and articles and giving guest lectures at the University of Northern Iowa (then Iowa State Teachers College).  They lived in Cedar Falls again from 1935 to 1938.  Ruth died in 1960 and her grave rests next to her father’s in Cedar Falls’ Greenwood Cemetery.

When “The Bonney Family” first appeared in 1928, the “Boston Transcript” reviewer wrote: “Not since Louisa Alcott’s ‘Little Women’ has there been such a vividly tender story of family life.”

In the 1920s, H. L. Mencken called Suckow one of the nation's most promising writers, says Lounsberry: “Suckow is Iowa’s Willa Cather.  Her fiction explores with moving realism and rich detail the life in Midwestern communities.”

For more information, or to join the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association, contact Lounsberry at 319-268-0502.

Edited May 20, 2008