brides that "obey" be left out of the marriage ceremony. During a later stint at the paper, Bristow covered the Huey Long assassination. Bristow wrote a letter describing her life as a reporter:I do regular reporting, which means interviewing convicts, getting descriptions of runaway girls, covering luncheons, writing obituaries of famous citizens and talking to famous actors who come to town. I have met more funny people than I ever knew existed.At the same time, Bristow was writing poetry, and she published a volume titled The Alien and Other Poems in 1926. Bristow met another journalist, Bruce Manning, while covering a murder trial, and the pair began to date. They eloped on January 14, 1929, marrying in a civil ceremony in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. The elopement was intended to avoid objections from Bristow's family to Manning's religion; Bristow was a Baptist, and Manning, a Catholic. The couple lived in a French Quarter apartment at 627 Ursuline Street. First publications Bristow published her first novel, The Invisible Host, in 1930. The mystery novel was co-written with Manning. The novel was a success and was adapted into a Broadway play called The Ninth Guest in 1931. Bristow resigned her job with The Times-Picayune. The couple collaborated again on The Gutenberg Murders in 1931. With their newfound success, Bristow and Manning moved to a mansion in the Mississippi Gulfport area. But the couple was not immune to the Depression that swept the United States. Bristow later wrote: "We were having a wonderful literary life on the coast and in the city when the Depression, which I had heard of but ignored, swooped down upon us and sent us scurrying for shelter." Bristow asked to be rehired at her old job, and in February 1932 she returned to The Times-Picayune. Move to Hollywood and literary success RKO Pictures bought the film rights to The Ninth Guest in 1933 and asked Bristow and Manning to write the script. The couple moved to Hollywood and lived briefly at 8231 Fountain Avenue. In 1934 Manning published a solo novel, Party Wire, and sold the film rights. Bristow had also written several novels on her own, but they were rejected by publishers. Bristow destroyed the manuscripts. Bristow persevered, and in California began writing what would become her Louisiana plantation novels. Deep Summer (1937), The Handsome Road (1938), and This Side of Glory (1940) are historical novels that