Emily Holmes Coleman

In a prose form as startling as its content, The Shutter of Snow portrays the post-partum psychosis of Marthe Gail, who after giving birth to her son, is committed to an insane asylum. Believing herself to be God, she maneuvers through an institutional world that is both sad and terrifying, echoing the worlds of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Snake Pit. Based upon the author's own experience after the birth of her son in 1924, The Shutter of Snow retains all the energy it had when first published in 1930.

The Shutter of Snow

Shutter of Snow (Faber Editions)

Elizabeth Podnieks

This edited selection, culled from the diary Coleman kept for over four decades, documents Coleman s experiences as an American expatriate poet, novelist, and diarist in France and England during the heyday of Anglo-American modernism. It showcases her struggles to reconcile her multiple identities as a creative, sexual, maternal, and spiritual woman as she interacted with some of the most important literary, artistic, and intellectual figures of the period."

Emily Holmes Coleman

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