Emily Toth

Emily Toth, a Robert Penn Warren Professor of English and Women's Studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, is a scholar, novelist, advice columnist, and feminist activist. She earned her PhD from The Johns Hopkins University. Toth's scholarly work includes over 300 articles and papers about academic mentoring, Louisiana literature and culture, women's humor, and music; biographies of the American women writers Kate Chopin and Grace Metalious; a cultural history of menstruation; edited collections of Chopin's papers and last short story collection, and a volume of essays about regionalism in women's writing. Toth's 1990 biography of Kate Chopin was nominated for a Pulitizer Prize. Toth's historical novel Daughters of New Orleans (1983) was named a "Best Feminist Historical Novel" by Romantic Times in 1984. Toth was also the founder and editor of the journal Regionalism and the Female Imagination (formerly The Kate Chopin Newsletter) from 1975-1979 and on the editorial board of the journal Southern Studies.

Activism

Since 1977, Toth has been an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP), an American nonprofit publishing organization that works to increase communication between women and connect the public with women-based media.

Books

• Ms. Mentor's New and Ever More Impeccable Advice for Women and Men in Academia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2008.
• Inside Peyton Place: the Life of Grace Metalious. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000, updated from 1981. Sold to Fox 2000 and Sandra Bullock for the film, Grace and Kitty.
• Unveiling Kate Chopin Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Published for the centennial of Chopin's The Awakening.
• Kate Chopin's Private Papers(edited with Per Seyersted and Cheyenne Bonnell). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
• Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1997. (currently on its third printing) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/29805/pdf
• Kate Chopin (biography). New York: William Morrow, 1990. Paperback: Austin: Univ. of Texas, 1993. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.*
• A Vocation and a Voice (edition of Kate Chopin's last story collection). New York: Penguin Classics, 1991.
• The Curse: a Cultural History of Menstruation. With Janice Delaney and Mary Jane Lupton. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1976. Updated edition, 1988.
• Regionalism and the Female Imagination (edited essays). New York: Human Sciences Press, 1985.
• Daughters of New Orleans (historical novel). New York: Bantam, 1983. Named one of three "Best Feminist Historical Novels" by Romantic Times (Fall, 1984).*
• A Kate Chopin Miscellany (letters, diaries, essays). Associate editor, with Per Seyersted. Natchitoches, LA: Northwestern State University Press and Oslo, Norway: Universitetsforlaget, 1979.

Other writings

Toth has published over 300 articles, reviews, and columns about women writers and popular and regional culture in academic and literary journals including The Massachusetts Review, The Women's Review of Books, The Southern Review, The Southern Quarterly, Southern Studies, and The Journal of American Culture), and in popular periodicals including Ms., USA Today, The Washington Post Book World, and The Times-Picayune (New Orleans). Toth has also presented her work at over 300 conferences in six countries.

Toth wrote the monthly advice column Ms. Mentor, a monthly column for the Career Network in The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1998 to 2017. For her work as Ms. Mentor, Toth was named one of "The Net's Hottest Columnists" by Content Spotlight (June 19, 2000). The best of Toth's Ms. Mentor column is collected in Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia (now in its third printing) and Ms. Mentor's New and Ever More Impeccable Advice for Women and Men in Academia, both published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Awards and recognitions

During her time at Louisiana State University and Penn State, Toth received various teaching and scholarship awards and was recognized for her pioneering work in popular culture by the Popular Culture Association. She has also been the recipient of 12 local and national grants and has appeared in four documentary films.

Awards

• Distinguished Faculty Award, Louisiana State University, 2001
• Robert Penn Warren Professor, Louisiana State University 2000-04
• Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award, Women's & Gender Studies, Louisiana State University 1998
• "Emily Toth Award," inaugurated 1986 by the American and Popular Culture Associations for best full-length book in women's studies and popular culture
• "Pioneer of Popular Culture" Award for Outstanding Contribution to American and Popular Culture Studies, American Culture Association's Governing Board, 2000
• Bartholome Lifetime Achievement Award, Popular Culture Association, 2019

Grants

• National Endowment for the Humanities grant
• Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities grant

Film Appearances

• Back Story: Peyton Place Michele Farinola and Mimi Freedman, Dirs. AMC, 2001*
• Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening Tika Laudun, Dir. Louisiana Public Broadcasting, 1998 *
• The Fifties Tracy Dahlby, Alex Gibney, and Susan Motamed, Dirs. The History Channel, 1997. Based on David Halberstam's 1994 book, The Fifties.*
• "Haunted Waters, Fragile Lands: Oh, What Tales to Tell!" Glen Pitre, Dir. Louisiana Public Broadcasting, 1994

References

Further reading

Kakutini, Michiko. "Books of The Times; A Woman Who Portrayed Adultery and Paid for It." The New York Times. 27 November 1990.

Kendall, Elaine. "Book Review: Rediscovering a Champion of Feminism. Kate Chopin by Emily Toth." Los Angeles Times Book Review. 30 November 1990.

Larue, Dorie. "Toth, Emily C. Unveiling Kate Chopin (Book Review)." Southern Quarterly. Vol. 38, Iss. 2, (Winter 2000): 159.

O'Brien, Sharon. "Bored Wives and Jubilant Widows." The New York Times. 30 December 1990.

Petry, Alice Hall. "Kate Chopin's Private Papers (Review)" Resources for American Literary Study, Volume 26, Number 1, 2000, pp. 124–127

Review of Kate Chopin. Kirkus Reviews. October 15, 1990.

Review of Unveiling Kate Chopin. Publisher's Weekly

Stange, Margit. "Unveiling Kate Chopin by Emily Toth." South Central Review. Vol. 17, No. 4 (Winter, 2000), pp. 122–124