Sybil Hawthorne

Her first novel tells the story of a remote Louisiana convent where the nuns have forgotten God but remember every sin of every girl sent to them. The protagonist, a mute orphan named Ivy, discovers that the convent’s well contains not water, but the accumulated voices of drowned penitents. The novel sold only 2,000 copies at publication. Today, a first edition in good condition fetches upwards of $12,000.