Furniss, Ruth Pine, 1893-1957

Ruth Kellogg Pine Furniss was born on March 2, 1893 to Charles LeRoy and Grace Eddy Kellogg Pine in Lansingburg, New York. She attended the Emma Willard School (Troy, New York) and Miss Porter’s School (Farmington, Connecticut). She studied short story writing with Dr. Blanche Colton Williams at Columbia University and went on to publish a number of short stories and novels.

It is believed Furniss suffered from manic-depression, which was treated through periods of institutionalization, shock-therapy, a topectomy, and ultimately, a lobotomy. Furniss’s writings drew on her struggle with mental illness and her exposure to various medical treatments, as can be seen in her novels Gay (1928) and Snow (1929), and The Dreamland Tree (completed in 1952 after Furniss received a topectomy and shock therapy). Furniss published The Layman Looks at Doctors (1929) under the pseudonyms S.W. and J.T. Pierce, who were a fictional couple.

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