Harriette Simpson Arnow (pronounced Arno) is best-known for her novel The Dollmaker, and also her devotion to her craft and the quality of her work, among the most acclaimed of Kentucky-born writers. She was paid $25 to publish her first short story in Southern Review.
Arnow’s stints of writing had been interspersed with jobs that paid her keep and enabled her to save money toward the next period when she could quit working, take her savings, and devote another stretch to writing.
Born in Wayne County, Arnow received her education in Burnside, Kentucky, then at Berea College and the University of Louisville. She taught for six years in the Pulaski County School System, but eventually gave up teaching in order to devote more time to writing.
Simpson owned a home on Tyree Hill in the 1930s.
She is regarded as one of the most noteable Burnside residents.
