Frank Norris
One of the central facts about Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Norris’ life is its relative brevity. Norris died at age 32 after an appendectomy, and this fact foregrounds the highly active nature of his literary output and travels. A prolific writer, Norris published more than 200 short pieces of writing, a book-length poem, and five novels in his lifetime; another novel and a collection of short stories were published posthumously. Norris’ first novel appeared when he was 28; until this time, he was known primarily for his contributions of essays, short fiction, poems, sports reports, interviews, and book and play reviews to newspapers.
Norris’ life was characterized by movement and experiment. He was born in Chicago in 1870 to a family with some money, and moved with them to San Francisco in 1884 where he studied drawing and painting at the city’s Art Association (McElrath xi). Three years later, after the death of his brother, the family traveled to Europe, and Norris studied art for over a year at the Académie Julien in Paris. When his artistic hopes didn’t bear success, and his focus had turned to writing verse, Norris returned to the U.S. and studied French language and literature at the University of California and Harvard, finally taking no degree. He did, however, study the work of key French literary naturalist Emile Zola, draft versions of his novels Moran of the Lady Letty and McTeague, and contribute work to student newspapers during this period.
In 1896, Norris traveled to South Africa just prior to the Boer War, planning to produce essays for newspaper publication. Here he was involved with the Jameson Raid, a British attempt to overthrow the existing Dutch Boer government. The coup failed, but during the course of his stay Norris served as a messenger posed in a British uniform, was jailed, wrote travel essays, and acquired a snake tattoo (McElrath 13). Upon his return, he worked as an editorial assistant for San Francisco’s The Wave for two years, and began to serialize his first novel Moran. His subsequent work as a journalist in New York City for the S.S. McClure syndicate instigated travel to Cuba to cover the Spanish-American War, and produced publishing connections.
Norris’ turn of the century novels shifted his reputation considerably from that of a contributor to newspapers and journals. The publication of Moran of the Lady Letty (1898), McTeague (1899), A Man’s Woman (1899), Blix (1899), The Octopus (1901), and the posthumous The Pit (1903) secured both a popular audience (The Pit was a bestseller for several months) and a critical audience interested in Norris’ import and adaptation of French literary naturalist techniques. Critics have debated since the degree to which Norris’ work attends to Zola’s formulations of social and biological naturalism and determinism. Please see the section on “Naturalism” listed under the “Literary, Historical, and Political Environments” heading for more on debates surrounding naturalist work.
In the midst of his travels and literary production, Norris married Jeannette Black in New York in 1900, researched The Pit in Chicago in 1901, and had a daughter and moved back to San Francisco in 1902. Unfortunately, Norris died soon after at a productive point in his career. (BH)
Works Consulted:
French, Warren. Frank Norris. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1962.
Frohock, W.M. Frank Norris. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1968.
McElrath, Jr., Joseph R. Frank Norris Revisited. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.