Collection on Darragh Aldrich

Darragh Aldrich (also known as Clara Chaplin Thomas, Clara Chapline Thomas Aldrich) was born December 31, 1884 in Richmond, Indiana and died on March 31, 1967 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduating cum laude from the University of Minnesota, Aldrich became a renowned novelist, poet, playwright, WCCO radio announcer, teacher, and newspaper columnist. She was the first woman columnist in Minneapolis and also was a Sunday editor at the Minneapolis Morning Tribune.

Her works include the novel Girl Going Nowhere, the “Quentin” column in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, and the Broadway play A Prince There Was. A Prince There Was, based on Aldrich’s novel Enchanted Hearts, was also released as a motion picture in 1922. In the area of non-fiction, she wrote biographies of John Deere and Mabeth Hurd Paige, one of the first women to serve in the Minnesota State Legislature. She enjoyed the outdoors and often spent time in the North woods of Minnesota with her husband, Chilson D. Aldrich, an architect specializing in the design of log cabins.