Zoe Anderson Norris

Zoe Anderson Norris, known to her friends in the Ragged Edge Klub as the Queen of Bohemia, was born in Kentucky in 1860, moved to Wichita, Kansas, with her first husband, and then to New York City, where she forged a career for herself as a journalist and novelist, eventually launching her own magazine, The East Side. In The East Side and in her journalism, she often focused on the lives of immigrants and the poor. Joining me in this episode is Eve M. Kahn, author of Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: Gilded-Age Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Come to the land of Bohemia,” composed by George Evans, with lyrics by Ren Shields; this performance by Hatvey Hindermyer was recorded on April 30, 1908, in New York, and is in the public domain and available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox. The episode image is of Zoe Anderson Norris from 1909, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Additional Sources:

• “To Fight for the Poor With My Pen: Zoe Anderson Norris, Queen of Bohemia,” Grolier Club Online Exhibitions.
• “Zoe Anderson Norris,” by W.J. Lampton, New York Times, February 27, 1914.
• “Zoe A. Norris,” Kentucky in American Letters, 1784-1912,” by John Wilson Townsend, Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch Press, 1913.