Helen Reimensnyder Martin

Helen Reimensnyder Martin (October 18, 1868 – June 29, 1939) was an American author.

Early life and education

Martin was born on October 18, 1868, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was the fifth child born to Reverend Cornelius and Henrietta Thurman Reimensnyder. Her father was a German immigrant and a Lutheran pastor who worked in Ohio before settling in Lancaster. Martin was called “Bill” by those who knew her because her parents expected a boy and wanted to name her William Allen after her mother’s uncle, a governor of Ohio.

Martin was a student at Swarthmore and Radcliffe Colleges.

Career

Martin published 35 novels and numerous short stories between 1896 and 1939. Her work focused on the oppression of women and can be split into two topics: sophisticated white high society and rural Pennsylvania Dutch society. Her high society novels were not successful until after she achieved success with her more ethnic local color novels.

According to Beverly Seaton, Martin used the Pennsylvania Dutch to critique society and advance her feminist viewpoint because their culture was unfamiliar to most Americans, making it safer for Martin to express controversial opinions about the rights of women and children in her stories. However, Martin's work also created negative stereotypes of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Martin's most well-known novel is one of her earliest books, Tillie: A Mennonite Maid. As is typical of Martin's work, Pennsylvania Dutch women are oppressed by brutish, stingy men and a patriarchal society in Tillie. Like all of Martin's heroines, Tillie escapes her repressive society through education and independent employment.