What could be more entic­ing than dis­cov­er­ing a lost woman writer through a gor­geous por­trait hang­ing in a uni­ver­si­ty library and learn­ing that her 1935 fan­ta­sy nov­el, The Unpre­dictable Adven­ture, was banned by the NY pub­lic library for being too ​“risqué” for their shelves? And that was just the begin­ning. Grow­ing up in a con­ser­v­a­tive mid­dle-class fam­i­ly in Tem­ple Texas, Claire Myers sought adven­ture and free­dom at an ear­ly age. 

At twen­ty she left home and found a com­mu­ni­ty of like-mind­ed free spir­its and intel­lec­tu­als in New York’s Green­wich Vil­lage. There, she wrote fic­tion and essays, includ­ing the banned nov­el. Writings,based on her adven­tures sat­i­rize her work for an Alaba­ma min­ing com­pa­ny, and her found­ing of a com­mune in the Vir­ginia moun­tains – where the hens refused to lay eggs and chilblains her sent her rush­ing back to NYC. 

Ulti­mate­ly, deep spir­i­tu­al­i­ty informs her quest for self-real­iza­tion and enlight­en­ment. Her deter­mi­na­tion to find the good in the human race mir­rors val­ues we find in Jew­ish ethics and teach­ings. Dis­cov­er­ing Claire Myers Owens trans­formed my life as a moth­er, a schol­ar, a friend, and a Jew­ish woman. Read­ing her sto­ry will trans­form yours as well.