Melora Fern Brings the Chautauqua Circuit to Life in 'Whistling Women and Crowing Hens'

In her debut novel, Whistling Women and Crowing Hens, former CPA turned novelist Melora Fern compels readers with a story inspired by her grandmother’s time as a traveling musician in the 1920’s. In this historical novel, readers follow Birdie Stauffer, a young woman who performs as a musical whistler with a train-traveling roadshow. In an effort to get away from her overbearing sister, she auditions for an all-female group called the Versatile Quintet, which opens for the Chautauqua circuit. Through this experience, she captures national attention and finds herself involved in two relationships. So, what exactly was the Chautauqua circuit? According to Fern, “…it was started in the late 1800’s as a Sunday school training ground in upstate New York… different cities would have their own Chautauqua and bring lecturers and highbrow music to them… what happened next were these Chautauqua circuits and… they would come to a small town, they would set up for 3-5 days… they would have a variety of different highbrow musical acts, lectures, and theater, and the whole town would basically shut down to come for these few days to get educated and entertained… they’re considered the forerunners of the TED Talks of today because it’s that same idea, spreading education just in a different format.”

Drawn from her grandmother, Verna Hintz Kurtz’s, experiences as a trombone player and a musical whistler in the Swarthmore Chautauqua Circuit, Fern came up with the idea for this novel after discovering her grandmother’s photographs, scrapbooks, brochures, and newspaper articles tucked away in a box under her parent’s bed. She knew her grandmother whistled, but she had no idea that she was a professional whistler before she got married. Fern noted, “What made my grandmother even more unique is she had perfect pitch so she could whistle and sing in a perfect pitch all the time… it was a very popular thing that people entertained by doing these whistling songs and then also doing bird calls, and my grandmother knew over 50 bird calls – the distinct, different types of bird calls. She was very talented with all that.”