Grace Steele Woodward | |
---|---|
Born | Joplin, Missouri, U.S. | September 14, 1899
Died | December 18, 1987 Oklahoma? | (aged 88)
Occupation | Author and playwright |
Nationality | French |
Alma mater | University of Missouri University of Oklahoma Teachers College at Columbia University |
Genre | Non-fiction history |
Spouse | Guy Woodward |
Grace Steele Woodward (September 14, 1899 – December 18, 1987) was an American writer and historian known for non-fiction books.
Grace Steele was born on September 14, 1899, in Joplin, Missouri.[1] Her family moved to Webb City, Missouri, where she graduated from Webb City High School in 1917.[2][3]
Woodward attended the University of Missouri, the University of Oklahoma, and Teachers College at Columbia University in New York.[2][4]
Steele wanted to be an actress and she worked as a professional storyteller.[5]
She married Guy Hendon Woodward, an attorney, in 1920; she had children before she began her writing career with a course at the University of Tulsa.[5][1] Her stories appeared in Parents, Forecast, and Holland's Magazine. Sometimes she wrote under the pseudonym Marian Doane to protect the privacy of her children.[2]
Her first book, The Man Who Conquered Pain (1962) was about William T.G. Morton, the dentist who promoted the user of ether.[2] Her second book, The Cherokees (1963) was a history of the Cherokee tribe and it received widespread acclaim.[2][5] Her third book, published in 1969, was a biography of Pocahontas. It won first prize from the Oklahoma State Writers.[1] Her fourth book, The Secrets of Sherwood Forest, was co-authored with her husband and published in 1973; it covered the drilling of oil in Sherwood Forest during World War II.[2]
Woodward was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1968.[4] She was a member of .[1]
Grace Steele Woodward died on December 18, 1987.[2] Her husband, Guy Woodward, had died in 1979.[5]