It’s the birthday of Mary Jessamyn West (1902-1984), whose short stories and novels were influenced by her Quaker background and whose best known work, a story collection called The Friendly Persuasion (1945), was about a Quaker family living on the border between North and South during the War of the Rebellion.

West was born in Jennings County, Indiana, near North Vernon, but moved with her family to southern California during her childhood. West studied English at Whittier College, then still a Quaker college. (Fun fact: Whittier was named after the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier, and the school athletic teams are the Poets. The school mascot, Johnny Poet, carries a big pen, which is mightier than the sword.) West graduated in 1923 and married Harry Maxwell McPherson and taught several years at a country school. While in graduate school at the University of California, West was diagnosed with terminal tuberculosis and ended up in a sanatorium for two years before being “sent home to die.”

(I’m sorry: the Poets? Johnny Poet? This is possibly even weirder and less scary than the Buckeyes, and you know what a buckeye is, right? It’s a nut. If someone chucks a buckeye at you, at least it hurts. Words hurt too, but not as much as a buckeye right to the head.)

West went home to die but was nursed back to health by her mother, who told stories of her Quaker childhood in Indiana and of their pioneer ancestors that inspired West to start writing. (Go, Mom. Moms are the best.) West’s stories started getting published in Harper’s, the Atlantic Monthly, and the Ladies’ Home Journal and were collected in her first book, The Friendly Persuasion, which was made into a movie in 1956.

(Maybe Johnny Poet could come out at halftime and compose a really scathing haiku, something to wither the spirits of the opposing team. That could work. I think I’m making my peace with this.)

West’s other story collections include Cress Delahanty (1953), Love, Death, and the Ladies’ Drill Team (1955), Except for Me and Thee (1969), and Crimson Ramblers of the World, Farewell (1970). Her novels include The Witch Diggers (1951), A Matter of Time (1966), Leafy Rivers (1967), and The Massacre at Fall Creek (1975). West also wrote memoirs, poetry, and an autobiography, The Woman Said Yes: Encounters with Life and Death (1976). West died at 81 in Napa, California, survived by her husband, daughter, and two grandchildren, and one really weird school mascot.

Have a sun-sparkling-off-the-lake kind of Thursday and stay scrupulously honest to the data.