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((other uses|So Big (disambiguation)))
((Short description|1924 novel by Edna Ferber))
((Refimprove|date=October 2015))
[[File:SoBigEdnaFerber.png|thumb|First edition<br>(publ. [[Doubleday, Page]]) ]]

'''''So Big''''' is a [[1924 in literature|1924]] novel written by [[Edna Ferber]]. The book was inspired by the life of [[Antje Paarlberg]] in the Dutch community of [[South Holland, Illinois|South Holland]], Illinois, a [[Chicago]] suburb. It was a best-seller in the United States and won the [[Pulitzer Prize for the Novel]] in 1925.

==Plot summary==
The story follows the life of a young woman, Selina Peake De Jong, who decides to be a school teacher in farming country. During her stay on the Pool family farm, she encourages the young Roelf Pool to follow his interests, which include art. Upon his mother's death, Roelf runs away to France. Meanwhile, Selina marries a Dutch farmer named Pervus. They have a child together, Dirk, whom she nicknames "So Big," from the common question and answer "How big is baby? " "''So-o-o-o'' big!" (Ferber, 2). Pervus becomes ill and dies, and Selina is forced to take over working on the farm to give Dirk a future. As Dirk gets older, he works as an architect but is more interested in making money than creating buildings and becomes a stock broker, much to his mother's disappointment. His love interest, Dallas O'Mara, an acclaimed artist, echoes this sentiment by trying to convince Dirk that there is more to life than money. Much later in life, Selina is visited by Roelf Pool, who has since become a famous sculptor. Dirk grows very distressed when, after visiting his mother's farm, he realizes that Dallas and Roelf love each other and he cannot compete with the artistically minded sculptor. In the end, Dirk comes to appreciate the wisdom of his mother, who always valued aesthetics and beauty even as she scraped out a living in a stern Dutch community. Ultimately, Dirk is left alone in his sumptuous apartment, saddened by his abandonment of artistic values.

== Publication ==
[[File:U0-eus-d1-580913aaf22b4fa2bc85952ac95dc6a6^pimgpsh fullsize distr.jpg|thumb|First edition (publ. [[Grosset & Dunlap]], 1924).]]
Edna Ferber was not confident about ''So Big''. On page 32 of J. E. Smyth's biography of Ferber called ''Edna Ferber’s Hollywood: American Fictions of Gender, Race, and History'', Ferber states, “I wrote it against my judgment; I wanted to write it...Nothing ever really happened in the book. It had no plot at all, as book plots go. It had a theme, but you had to read that for yourself between the lines.” She argued if anything, “it was a story of the triumph of failure.”  

She sent the book off to her publisher Doubleday apologizing, saying to [[Russell Doubleday]], “I think its publication as a book would hurt you, as publishers, and me as an author.” Additionally, she later wrote, “Who would be interested in a novel about a middle-aged woman in a calico dress with wispy hair and bad teeth, grubbing on a little truck farm south of Chicago?” 

To Ferber's surprise, Doubleday loved the novel. It was a commercial success, sold hundreds of thousands of copies in its first year of publication,<ref>((Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kf_9DAAAQBAJ|title=Edna Ferber's Hollywood: American Fictions of Gender, Race, and History|last=Smyth|first=J. E.|date=2010|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0292719842|language=en))</ref> and became the best-selling work of fiction in America for the year 1924, according to [[Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1920s|''Publishers Weekly'']].<ref>((cite book |last1=Hackett, Alice Payne and Burke, James Henry |title=80 Years of Bestsellers: 1895–1975 |date=1977 |publisher=R.R. Bowker Company |location=New York |isbn=0-8352-0908-3 |page=97))</ref>

==Film, television or theatrical adaptations==
A number of film adaptations of the novel have been made. The [[So Big (1924 film)|first adaptation]], directed by [[Charles Brabin]], was released the same year the novel was published, with [[Colleen Moore]] in her first significant dramatic role. The [[So Big! (1932 film)|1932 adaptation]], directed by [[William A. Wellman]], featured an [[ensemble cast]] led by [[Barbara Stanwyck]], [[George Brent]] and [[Bette Davis]]. The [[So Big (1953 film)|most recent adaptation]], directed by [[Robert Wise]] in 1953, starred [[Jane Wyman]] and [[Sterling Hayden]]. This one softened the ending considerably by including a reconciliation between Dirk and his mother.

A [[satire|satirical]] version of the novel appears in [[Bob Clampett]]'s 1946 [[cartoon]] ''[[Book Revue]]''. A [[fugitive]] [[wolf]] is running away from the authorities and runs past the book, which features [[Jimmy Durante]] on the cover. Durante sticks his famously large [[nose]] out and trips the wolf.

==Radio adaptation==
''So Big'' was presented on ''Stories America Loves'' in 1942. [[Joan Blaine]] had the role of Selena Peake in the adaptation.<ref name=ht011042>((cite news|title=Edna Ferber's Novel, 'So Big', on 'Stories America Loves'|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3253994/harrisburg_telegraph/|agency=Harrisburg Telegraph|date=January 10, 1942|page=27|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = September 19, 2015)) ((Open access))</ref>

==References==
((reflist))

==External links==
* ((StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edna-ferber/so-big))
* ((FadedPage|id=20190481|name=So Big))
* ((Gutenberg|no=61686|name=So Big))
* ((librivox book | title=So Big | author=Ferber))
((Wikisource|So Big))

((PulitzerPrize Fiction 1918–1925))
((Edna Ferber))

((DEFAULTSORT:So Big))
[[Category:1924 American novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Doubleday, Page & Company books]]
[[Category:Novels set in Chicago]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1890s]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1900s]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1910s]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1920s]]
[[Category:Novels about poverty]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for the Novel-winning works]]
[[Category:Novels by Edna Ferber]]

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