Grace Sartwell Mason | |
|---|---|
 Grace Sartwell Mason in 1915 | |
| Native name | Grace Sartwell |
| Born | October 31, 1876 Port Allegany, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | February 1, 1966 (aged 89) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Spouse | Redfern Mason |
Grace Sartwell Mason (October 31, 1876 — February 1, 1966) was an American journalist, critic, and writer of stories and novels.
Early life[edit]
Grace Sartwell was born in Port Allegany, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Stephen C. and Rose F. Thompson Sartwell. Her parents kept an inn, Sartwell House. She had a twin brother, Stephen M. Sartwell.[1] She studied music as a teen.[2]
Career[edit]
Mason published several novels and collections of short stories, including The Car and the Lady (1908, co-written with Percy F. Magargel), The Godparents (1910), Licky and his Gang (1912), The Bear's Claws (1913), The Golden Hope (1916),[3] His Wife's Job (1919), The Shadow of Rosalie Byrnes (1919) and Women Are Queer (1932).[4] She is sometimes considered an early woman author in science fiction, based on Bear's Claws (a "lost world" story).[5]
Mason's stories appeared in national publications, including Harper's,[6] Scribner's,[7] Munsey's,[8] American Magazine,[9] Appleton's,[10] and Everybody's.[11]
She moved to Northern California in 1912. On her relocation to California, she stated: "For a writer who needs the out-of-doors and plenty of elbow room – big spaces, the mountains, the sound of the surf, the wind in the pines – California is the place."[12] She was associated with the artists' colony at Carmel, California.[13]
Mason was an officer of the Pen and Brush, a New York club for women writers and artists, while Ida Tarbell was the club's president.[14] She was also a member of the Authors' Guild.[15] She spent the summer of 1927 at an island retreat in Maine with three other women writers, including Pulitzer-prize winner Margaret Widdemer.[16] In 1935 she was on the panel of judges for a literary contest sponsored by the Bronxville Women's Club.[17]
Films based on works by Grace Sartwell Mason include Waifs (1918), The Shadow of Rosalie Byrne (1920), Speed (1925), Man Crazy (1927), and Honeymoon in Bali (1939). A 1926 story by Mason was also the basis of This Way to Heaven (September 18, 1956), an episode of the television anthology series The Jane Wyman Show.
Personal life[edit]
Grace M. Sartwell married James Redfern Mason, a music critic, in 1902.[18] They divorced.[19] In 1930 she married architect Ralph Holt Howes.[20][21] She died in 1966.
References[edit]
- ^ Michael A. Leeson, History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania (J. H. Beers 1890): 526.
- ^ Lillian G. Genn, "Party Flirtations Dangerous" Honolulu Advertiser (October 9, 1932): 31. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Los Angeles as the Villain" California Outlook (September 1916): 137.
- ^ Online Books by Grace Sartwell Mason, The Online Books Page.
- ^ "Grace Sartwell Mason", The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (May 12, 2017).
- ^ Grace Sartwell Mason, author index, Harper's Magazine.
- ^ Grace Sartwell Mason, "His Job" Scribner's Magazine (April 1920): 470–480.
- ^ Grace Sartwell Mason, "The Wedding Gift" Munsey's (November 1908): 220–225.
- ^ Grace Sartwell Mason, "The Only Old Person Left in the World" American Magazine (February 1919): 29–31, 118.
- ^ Grace Sartwell Mason, "The Prodigies" Appleton's (August 1907): 217–224.
- ^ Grace Sartwell Mason, "The Lady with the Comic Sense" Everybody's (May 1916): 618–633.
- ^ Russell E. Smith, "The Literary Inspiration of California" Book News Monthly (November 1915): 22.
- ^ "Actors of Carmel Hold a Frolic at Theater in Woods" San Francisco Chronicle (June 9, 1912): 23. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Women Artists and Writers Buy $52,000 Tenth St. Home" New York Times (June 3, 1923): E1. via ProQuest
- ^ "Authors At Tea in Store" New York Times (October 7, 1927): 19. via ProQuest
- ^ Untitled society news item, The Times (November 15, 1927): 6. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Winners Announced in Literary Contest" New York Times (November 3, 1935): 2. via ProQuest
- ^ John William Leonard, ed., Woman's Who's Who of America (American Commonwealth Company 1914): 542.
- ^ Nina Baym, Women Writers of the American West (University of Illinois Press 2011): 290. ISBN 9780252093135
- ^ "Sues to Force Howes to Quit Second Wife" New York Times (January 4, 1930): 4. via ProQuest
- ^ "Poetess Propitiated" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (May 8, 1930): 3. via Newspapers.com
Further reading[edit]
- Diane Wellins Moul, "'A certain something': Reclaiming Grace Sartwell Mason" (PhD dissertation, University of Rhode Island 1998).
- Diane Wellins Moul, "A Boys' Town: Grace Sartwell Mason's Licky and His Gang" in Roxanne Harde, ed., Narratives of Community: Women's Short Story Sequences (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2009): 389–410. ISBN 9781443806541
- Grace Sartwell Mason, "The Lotus Eater" in Maureen Honey, ed., Breaking the Ties That Bind: Popular Stories of the New Woman, 1915–1930 (University of Oklahoma Press 1998): 94–112. ISBN 9780806130347
External links[edit]
- Grace Sartwell Mason at IMDb
- Works by Grace Sartwell Mason at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Grace Howes's gravesite on Find a Grave.
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