The Portion of Labor by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman Fiction Literary

<p><strong><em>The Portion of Labor</em> is one of the first labor novels. </strong>It's a closely detailed look with finely drawn characters at the relations between labor and capital and the economic conditions of a New England town. Freeman's heroine leads a strike by workers in a shoe factory for better wages and working conditions but her efforts are complicated by her feelings for the owner.</p><p>Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was a prominent 19th century American author. She was born in Randolph Massachusetts and attended Mount Holyoke College and West Brattleboro Seminary. Freeman began writing stories and verse for children while still a teenager to help support her family. She produced more than two dozen volumes of published short stories and novels. She is best known for two collections of stories <em>A Humble Romance and Other Stories</em> (1887) and <em>A New England Nun and Other Stories</em> (1891). Her stories deal mostly with New England life. Freeman is also remembered for her novel <em>Pembroke</em> (1894). In April 1926 Freeman became the first recipient of the William Dean Howells Medal for Distinction in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.</p>