A Man’s Woman

Most noted for The Octopus (1901), an exposé of the wheat trade, this Chicago born author began his literary career writing medieval romances in Paris. An encounter with the fiction of Emile Zola, however, inspired Norris to use his talents to examine the more realistic aspects of daily life. The Octopus formed the first part of a trilogy which was never completed, due to Norris' tragic death after an appendectomy.