Kathryn Forbes

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Kathryn McLean née Anderson (March 20, 1908 - May 15, 1966), best known by her pen name Kathryn Forbes, was an American writer and memoirist.

[edit] Life

Kathryn Anderson was born in San Francisco in 1908 to Norwegian immigrants.

Forbes died in San Francisco in 1966. She is interred in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma in San Mateo County, just south of the city where she was born and raised.

[edit] Work

Forbes' best known work was Mama's Bank Account, her memoir of life with her parents and siblings in San Francisco in the early 20th Century. Her heartwarming stories focused on their simple aspirations and often difficult struggles, dreams and determinations, happiness and sorrows.

Forbes' book served as the inspiration for John Van Druten's 1944 play I Remember Mama, which subsequently became a 1948 film, a popular long-running television series as well as a Broadway musical.

As Kathryn Forbes McLean, she wrote Bell, Book and Candle, which also became a successful film.^{[dubious – discuss]}