34 CHARLTON

A background of the Greenwich Village of old houses and old families -- an unhackneyed atmosphere for an unassuming panel of family conflict. The Mulloy family was dominated by the grandmother, whose devotion to her sons, rather than her daughters, kept all in subjection except for her husband and her granddaughter, Katherine, whom her grandfather conditioned to independence whatever the cost. Old Mrs. Mulloy manipulated the lives under her power; but even after her grandfather's death, Katherine, in a household of women ruled by her grandmother, held to his precepts, went to business school, got herself a job and found new, outside interests, regardless of the disapproval of her relative. Then the grandmother died, but the pressure continued as the women financed a worthless brother and made greater demands on the girl. To break the pattern, she moved out, only to come to the very brink of losing her independence in order to support them until the discovery that this meant supporting her worthless uncle, too, broke her bondage and freed her to live her own life, with the young artist she loves...The manuscript won a top award in the 1944 Hopwood contest.