This introduction describes the start of the correspondence and friendship between two remarkable women writers, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Ellen Glasgow, as well as some of the historical context and the importance and influence of their preserved letters. While these women were very different-- Glasgow was a former Southern debutante and Rawlings was a raucous pioneer of the Florida scrub-- they felt for one another a remarkable kinship. While theirs was not the only relationship of its kind, it was one of the great literary friendships of the South, and should be studied for the impact that such friendships may have on the lives and experiences of women writers.