Fourth in this series of women who had a major impact on the Ferguson Home Museum is Edna Ferber. Ferber was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1885 to a Hungarian Jewish immigrant father and U.S.-born mother. She graduated from high school in Appleton, Wisconsin. She worked as a reporter for the local newspaper, then in Milwaukee and later covered the 1920 Democratic and Republican conventions for the United Press Association. This newspaper experience played a role in her interest in early Oklahoma newspapers such as the Watonga Republican published by the Fergusons. https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Edna_Ferber.
Ferber had early success with short stories and won a Pulitzer Prize for her 1924 novel So Big. In May 1927 or ’28, Ferber was visiting fellow Putizer Prize winner William Allen White in Emporia, Kansas. Ferber was spellbound learning about land runs, oil discovery and other aspects of early Oklahoma history. Ferber and the White family visited Oklahoma on a three-day trip, and Ferber stayed on to learn more. She met Walter Ferguson, the son of T. B. and Elva, who advised her to visit Elva in Watonga. Ferber spent some days in Watonga interviewing Elva Ferguson and many others, poring over old settler accounts, letters and the Watonga Republican. In 1930, she published Cimarron (Spanish word meaning untamed). Cimarron Dreams by Jim Logan published in Oklahoma Today, May 2025 https://digitalprairie. ok.gov/digital/collection/ stgovpub/id/7297 11 The characters are Yancey Cravat, a lawyernews editor, possibly a combination of T.B. Ferguson and Temple Houston, youngest son of Sam Houston, a lawyer in Woodward. Sabra, Yancey’s young wife, and their son “Cim” are his family. The book was the best-selling novel of 1930. RKO studios paid a record $100,000 for rights and produced the Academy Award winning cinema success Cimarron in 1931.
Ferber, hailed as one of the greatest novelists of her time, published other books made into movies. These included So Big, Giant, Show Boat and Ice Palace. She helped adapt her short story 'Old Man Minick', published in 1922, into a play (Minick) and it was thrice adapted to film. www.Wikipedia.org Ferber publicized the pioneering spirit of early Oklahomans, newspaper editors, young and courageous women and men and their children. She highlighted the plight of native Americans from whom land was aggressively sought to make way for settlers.