Fanny Herself is the story of Fanny Brandeis, a young girl coming of age in the Midwest at the turn of the 20th century. It is generally considered to have been based on Ferber’s own experiences growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin. Regarded by many as the “greatest American woman novelist of her day,” Ferber would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize in a 1925 for her book So Big, and is also the author of Showboat and Cimarron, which along with other of her later works were successfully adapted for stage and screen. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)