Mary Lee Settle

Mary Lee Settle (July 29, 1918 Charleston, West Virginia – September 27, 2005 Ivy, Virginia) was an American writer and winner of the National Book Award for her 1978 novel Blood Tie.^[1] She was also one of the founders of the annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.^[2]

Life

She attended Sweet Briar College for two years, then moved to New York City in pursuit of a career as an actress and model, and even tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. During World War II, she joined the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and then the Office of War Information. She taught at Bard College, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and University of Virginia.^[3]

Settle lived for many years in Canada, in England, and in Turkey.^[4]

Settle is most famous for a series of novels called the "Beulah Quintet", {Prisons, O Beulah Land, Know Nothing, The Scapegoat, The Killing Ground) which cover the history of West Virginia, and by extension, the United States. She also wrote several works of non-fiction.^[5]

She died of lung cancer in Ivy, Virginia, near Charlottesville.

Works

Novels and Memoirs

• The Love Eaters (1954)
• The Kiss of Kin (1955)
• O Beulah Land (1956)
• Know Nothing (1960)
• Fight Night on a Sweet Saturday (1964)
• All the Brave Promises: The Memories of Aircraft Woman 2nd Class 2146391 (1966)
• The Clam Shell (1970)
• Prisons (1973)
• Blood Tie (1977)
• The Scapegoat (1980)
• The Killing Grounds (1982)
• "Celebration" (1986)
• Charley Bland (1989)
• Turkish Reflections: A Biography of Place (1991)
• Addie: A Memoir (1998)
• I, Roger Williams: A Novel (2002)
• Spanish Recognitions: The Road from the Past (2004)

Non Fiction

• All the Brave Promises
• The Scopes trial
• Water World

References

1. ^ http://www.nndb.com/people/676/000104364/
2. ^ Matt Schudel (September 29, 2005). "Novelist Mary Lee Settle; Founded PEN/Faulkner Award". Washington Post: p. B07. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/28/AR2005092802519.html?nav=rss_metro/obituaries. 
3. ^ http://www.wvwc.edu/library/wv_authors/authors/a_settle.htm
4. ^ Christopher Reed (10 October 2005). "Mary Lee Settle". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/oct/10/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries. 
5. ^ ANITA GATES (September 29, 2005). "Mary Lee Settle, 87, Author of 'Beulah' Novels, Is Dead". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/books/29settle.html?_r=1. 

External links

• John Kenny Crane (Spring 1990). "Mary Lee Settle, The Art of Fiction No. 116". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2342/the-art-of-fiction-no-116-mary-lee-settle. 
• "Mary Lee Settle" by Brian O. Hogbin
• Brian C. Rosenberg (Summer 1989). "Mary Lee Settle and the Critics". The Virginia Quarterly Review. http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1989/summer/rosenberg-mary-lee-settle/. 
• Mariflo Stephens (autumn 1996). Mary Lee Settle: the Lioness In Winter. http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1996/autumn/stephens-mary-lee-settle/. 

Persondata
Name	Settle, Mary Lee
Alternative names
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Date of birth	July 29, 1918
Place of birth
Date of death	September 27, 2005
Place of death