January 9, 1934

Writer Alice French died in Davenport, Iowa. Using the pseudonym Octave Thanet, she was a leading writer of local color stories. Some of her best work is based on the years she spent at her winter home in Clover Bend (Lawrence County) in the Black River swamp country. French also published stories and essays in such national periodicals as the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Scribner’s Magazine, and Century Magazine.