The Snake Pit
Ward authored eight books during her lifetime, the most noted being "The Snake Pit", which received widespread critical acclaim after its publication in 1946. Ward's semi-autobiographical story about a woman's recovery from mental illness made more than a hundred thousand dollars in its first month; it was quickly chosen for Random House’s book-of-the-month club and developed into an Oscar-winning film "The Snake Pit", starring Olivia de Havilland. Ward’s story, along with the ensuing film, was credited with instigating public dialogue on the condition of state psychiatric hospitals and influencing reform legislation. Three years after the book’s release, Daily Variety journalist Herb Stein wrote that Wisconsin had become “the seventh state to institute reforms in its mental hospitals as a result of "The Snake Pit".”