About this item
Just how did Jane Austen become the celebrity author and the inspiration for generations of loyal fans she is today? Devoney Looser's The Making of Jane Austen turns to the people, performances, activism, and images that fostered Austen's early fame, laying the groundwork for the beloved author we think we know.Here are the Austen influencers, including her first English illustrator, the eccentric Ferdinand Pickering, whose sensational gothic images may be better understood through his brushes with bullying, bigamy, and an attempted matricide. The daring director-actress Rosina Filippi shaped Austen's reputation with her pioneering dramatizations, leading thousands of young women to ventriloquize Elizabeth Bennet's audacious lines before drawing room audiences.
About the Author
Hello! I'm Devoney Looser, Professor of English at Arizona State University. I also go by Stone Cold Jane Austen, especially when I'm on roller skates.
My new book, The Making of Jane Austen (makingjaneuasten.com) , is just out from Johns Hopkins University Press. I'm grateful to Publishers Weekly for naming it a Best Summer Book in Nonfiction. Check out the 3-minute book trailer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=wrb3TMfqqf4&t=32s
I grew up in Minnesota, where postage-stamped sized backyards were turned into winter ice rinks using garden hoses, and cold weather brought opportunities to snuggle up and read. Now I live in the desert near a fantastic roller rink. I teach Jane Austen to college students and serve as the faculty adviser to ASU's roller derby team. (That's how I got my alter-ego derby nickname.) I met my husband--also an English professor and Austen scholar--over a conversation about Austen, and together we're raising tween sons who find Austen tolerable but un-tempting.
Learn more at www.devoney.com, on Twitter at @devoneylooser @Making_Jane and @StoneColdJane, and on Instagram at @MakingJaneAusten and @devoneylooser
P. S. I pronounce my name DEV-oh-knee LOH-zer. It was one of those names that made me learn to be tough on the grade school playground.