Fairbank, Janet Ayer. Rich Man, Poor Man (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1936) 626 p.

Barbara Jackson is the assistant librarian in Elida, Kansas in 1912. The head librarian is the portly, enthusiastic Miss Jessup. Babs, “slim lithe and young” (p. 59), is known as an eloquent speaker on political topics, especially prohibition and female suffrage.

The girl took off her hat with a dramatic gesture and disclosed the fact that her hair was cut short, like a boy's. It lay close to her head instead of puffing out the way other women's hair did, and it made her look very queer-- advanced … (p. 60).

Babs gives up her small library and her small town to marry a rich boy from Chicago where they move and become involved in national politics. Although she returns to Elida for visits she never goes back to library work.