Expand Photo courtesy of Milwaukee County Historical Society Original Journal building in Milwaukee The Journal's original building in MilwaukeeThe Milwaukee Journal proved to be the launch pad where Edna Ferber, a fierce, defensive Jewish teen, transformed herself into one of the 20th century’s most formidable literary giants. Milwaukee did not gently nurture Edna Ferber; it hammered her into shape until she collapsed under its weight. When Edna arrived in Milwaukee, she was claiming a heritage that had been violently disrupted by the family’s nomadic, financially unstable odyssey. It was during this period of forced stillness that daily journalism lost Edna Ferber to American literature. A Triumphant Return to the WorldExpand Edna Ferber (1920) Edna Ferber (1920)Ferber eventually moved to New York, chasing the financial security her father had never been able to provide.