Wilbur Daniel Steele (17 March 1886, Greensboro, North Carolina – 26 May 1970, Stamford, Connecticut) was a U.S. author and playwright. He has been called "America's recognised master of the popular short story" between World War I and the Great Depression.^[1]

His short stories are set in American locations and are often highly dramatic. Collections of his stories include The Man Who Saw through Heaven (1927), Best Stories (1946), and Full Cargo (1951). He also wrote novels, including Taboo (1925), That Girl from Memphis (1945), and Their Town (1952). His second wife was actress Norma Mitchell, with whom he co-wrote the play The Post Road.

Works

Fiction

• Storm, 1914
• Ching Ching Chinaman, 1917
• Land's End and Other Stories, 1918
• The Shame Dance and Other Stories, 1923
• Isles of the Blest, 1924
• Taboo, 1925
• Urkey Island, 1926. (Stories.)
• The Man Who Saw Through Heaven and Other Stories, 1927.
• Meat, 1928. Republished as The Third Generation, 1929.
• Tower of Sand and other Stories, 1929.
• Undertow, 1930.
• Diamond Wedding, 1931.
• Sound of Rowlocks, 1938.
• That Girl from Memphis, 1945.
• The Best Stories, 1945.
• Full Cargo: More Stories, 1951.
• Their Town, 1952
• The Way to the Gold, 1955.

Plays

• Contemporaries, produced 1915.
• Not Smart, produced 1916.
• The Giants' Stair, produced 1924.
• The Terrible Woman and Other One Act Plays, 1925. Also includes Not Smart, Ropes.
• (with Norma Mitchell) Any Woman, produced in August 1934 for one-week run.
• (with Norma Mitchell) Post Road, produced 1934; printed 1935.
• (with Anthony Brown) How Beautiful with Shoes, produced 1935. From the story by Steele.
• Luck, in William Kozlenko (ed.) One Hundred Nonroyalty Plays, 1941.