Frances Percy Newman (1883–1928) was a Modernist novelist, translator, and librarian who critically examined the difficulties faced by women in the American South.

Although her career was extremely short, she drew the attention and support of notable novelists and critics like H. L. Mencken, Sherwood Anderson, and James Branch Cabell.

[2] On her return in 1924, she accepted a new position as head librarian at the Georgia Institute of Technology but took a leave the following year to devote more time to her writing.

"[1] Recommendations from Mencken and novelist Sherwood Anderson helped her get a residency in 1926 at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, where she completed her first published novel, The Hard-Boiled Virgin (1926).

Newman left behind some unpublished works, including her first novel—a comedy of manners entitled The Gold-Fish Bowl (1921)—and a translation of short fiction by the French poet Jules Laforgue.

"[1] Her novels are disguised morality tales or modern fables,[1] and they shocked many Southern readers with their candid critique of the educational, social, and career restrictions that distorted the lives of women.