OCTAVE THANET, American novelist, born (d:1934); Born Alice French, Octave Thanet was one of the most popular novelists of the late 19th century. She is no longer read, and with good reason. Her stuff is irredeemably dreadful by any standard. (In one novel, for example, the heroine falls in love with a young woman and proceeds to tell her so, nonstop, for twenty-two pages, not counting heaves and maidenly emotion-laden sighs.) For fifty years, Thanet, a 200-pound, six-footer, lived together with petite Jane Crawford at their mansion “Thanford” (Thanet/Crawford), a name, which is, admittedly, better than “Crawer.”
