Author's final chapter

Watch Steve and Viney Mosley talk with Matt Sanders During her life Jean Bell Mosley was a prolific author who wrote short story after short story, a weekly column for the Southeast Missourian and several books after publishing her first work in Woman's Day magazine in 1947.

Mosley died in 2003, but one work is still yet to be seen by the public -- her autobiography.

The material was culled from decades of living in Southeast Missouri, as a girl growing up on a farm in the Old Lead Belt and as an adult mother and homemaker in Cape Girardeau. The story, "And God Answered," was written over many years, finished in 1997, waiting for a publisher. A publisher, Southeast Missouri State University, was found, and on Wednesday it will finally be available to the public -- the final work of an author who has become a local treasure.

The book tells Mosley's story of watching the 20th century go by in Southeast Missouri through her lens of spirituality.

"Mom had been thinking, like many writers do, about an autobiography for a long period of time," said Steve Mosley, the only child born to Jean Bell and Edward Mosley. "She wanted to try and capture in the book ... the highlights of her life, her writing career, but woven throughout it all was her spirituality, her love of God, her almost uncanny ability, to me, to see the hand of God, as she referred to it, in everything she seemed to observe."

Viney Mosley and Steve Mosley sat on their porch swing in Cape Girardeau, much like his mother, Jean Bell Mosley, often did while writing stories.

Since the sale of her first story, Jean Bell Mosley had built a reputation writing short stories, books and columns that captured the flavor of rural life and infused a spirituality that followed her own belief that the divine could be found in all things. Well-known magazines like Guideposts and the Saturday Evening Post bought her articles (she sold the first for a whopping $400 in 1947) and she was honored with awards on the state and local level.

The Southeast Missouri State University Press doesn't typically publish autobiographies, but Mosley's status as a Southeast Missouri literary institution and the historical nature of her memoirs made "And God Answered" something different, said press director Dr. Susan Swartwout.

"Because of Jean Bell Mosley's importance ... to our region," Swartwout said when asked why the press decided to publish the book. "She's probably one of the best-loved authors of our region, I think I can say that certainly, and certainly one of the most prolific.

"Autobiography is usually not a subject that we would take from people we don't know or who are from outside the area, but this one was important."

Steve Mosley may be Jean Bell's only child, but it was his wife Viney who took the lead in getting the book published, shopping around the already-finished manuscript to find a press that would posthumously publish it. Finally, a mutual friend led her to Swartwout a few years ago, and the process began in earnest.

Viney seems as devoted to Jean Bell Mosley's work and memory as if she'd been Mosley's child herself. Unlike stereotypical in-law relationships, Viney and Jean Bell's was marked not by mistrust or uneasiness, but by the type of love and understanding enjoyed by mother and daughter.

Viney's mother died at a young age, and when she became involved with Steve, she and Jean Bell quickly struck up a relationship.

The first time they met, Viney says Jean Bell "met me at the door and opened her arms and hugged me right there. That's the way she greeted everybody she met, and she greeted every day of her life like that."

Jean Bell left such an impression on her daughter-in-law that after her death it was Viney who went through her writings and organized them for preservation. Afterward she made it her almost singular goal to get "And God Answered" published.

The book derives its name from the late Mosley's ability to see God at work in everything, said Steve and Viney. The story actually begins before Jean Bell's birth in 1913 by telling the story of her family beginning in 1910. The couple said the story is one of spirituality, but also one that shows the evolution of an area and a person experiencing those changes. Included are the massive changes in society and technology, as well as some perspective on the challenges of life in the past.

One story is about Jean Bell's brother Steven, who died at age 2 after choking on a bean. Other farm tragedies help illustrate the hardships of life decades ago.

But Steve Mosley said his mother was never one to live in the past, but always focused on the here and now. Living in the now meant taking care of Steve and the household when he was a child -- cooking, cleaning, washing clothes -- while still finding time to write, even if he hardly saw her doing it.

"Many people think of a writer as someone who is very structured, there comes a time of the day or night when they might say 'I need to be left alone, I need to do my writing,'" said Steve Mosley. "I have no memory whatsoever of her being that way."

Viney sees Jean Bell as a pioneer, a woman who, before the heyday of feminism, was able to balance her career as a writer and her duties as a wife and mother.

The Mosleys know Jean Bell's life and work has already touched members of the older generations living in Southeast Missouri, but they hope with the publication of "And God Answered" her work finds a larger audience that includes younger generations. Viney says she hopes to one day establish some sort of Jean Bell Mosley museum or library using the volumes of work she found and organized after her mother-in-law's death in 2003.

Swartwout, an English professor, said she knows Mosley's work can provide some tips for the young writers at Southeast.

"She's a fantastic storyteller ... her descriptions are wonderful," said Swartwout. "That's what we would tell people in class, please put more of this in your writing."

"And God Answered" will be available starting Wednesday at Amazon.com, the Cape Girardeau Barnes and Noble Booksellers and the Southeast Missouri State University Press.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182