The site catalogs over 1,125 films adapted from the prose and poetry of American women writers between 1910 and 1963. Each entry links authors, their original works, and the resulting films, creating a comprehensive resource for studying how women's literature became cinema.

The database goes beyond simple cataloging. By connecting films to their source works and authors, then layering in publication and production details, biographical information, and images, we can trace patterns that reveal how the Hollywood system depended on women's storytelling, and how their contributions were erased from film history.

Why This Matters

When we think of literary adaptations from Hollywood's golden age, we might recall Little Women (1933) or Gone with the Wind (1939). But these famous examples barely scratch the surface of women's influence on American cinema.

American women writers didn't just contribute the occasional prestige adaptation—they provided the narrative backbone of the studio system. From Mary Roberts Rinehart's mysteries that created the "spinsters solving crimes" genre to Fannie Hurst's tearjerking melodramas, from Gene Stratton-Porter's nature romances to Edna Ferber's sweeping American epics, women's prose (and occasionally poetry) shaped what audiences saw on screen for over half a century.

Yet this massive cultural influence has been almost entirely forgotten. These writers—once household names commanding top dollar for their film rights—have largely vanished from both literary and film history. This project seeks to restore their place in the narrative of American culture.

Scope & Methodology

To qualify for inclusion, a film must meet these criteria:

• Source: Adapted from prose fiction or poetry (not plays) by an American woman writer
• Production: American film production (excluding British or other foreign productions)
• Release date: Between 1910 and 1963 (after which adaptations of women's literature sharply declined)
• Verification: Documented in at least one authoritative source (AFI Catalog, contemporary trade publications, or studio records)

The project employs both traditional humanities research and digital methods. Primary sources include studio archives, author papers, and contemporary publications. Computational analysis makes it feasible to work with this scale of data—over 1,100 films, from over 1,000 literary works by almost 500 authors—allowing us to quickly identify patterns like which studios specialized in women's stories, how adaptation practices evolved across decades, and which authors dominated specific genres.

Each entry undergoes verification against multiple sources, with conflicting information noted. The database acknowledges gaps in the historical record—many silent films are lost, credits often went unrecorded, and women's contributions were frequently minimized or erased from official documentation.