The Secret Way: 'An ancient wildwood showed its heart to me''

Zona Gale was born on 26th August 1874 in Portage, Wisconsin. She was exceptionally close to her parents and later used them as the basis for characters in her works. She wrote and illustrated her first story at the age of 7.

By 16 she was being paid for stories from the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin.

After studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she received a degree and two master's she moved to New York and applied for jobs at every paper in the city. She was later hired as a secretar...