Grace Zaring Stone (January 9, 1891 – September 29, 1991) was an

American novelist This is a list of novelists from the United States, listed with titles of a major work for each. This is not intended to be a list of every American (born U.S. citizen, naturalized citizen, or long-time resident alien) who has published a novel. ...

and short-story writer.Grace Zaring Stone, a Novelist Under Two Names, Dies at 100
''New York Times''. She is perhaps best known for having three of her novels made into films: ''

The Bitter Tea of General Yen ''The Bitter Tea of General Yen'' is a 1933 American pre-Code drama war film directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck, and featuring Nils Asther and Walter Connolly. Based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Grace Zaring Stone, th ...

'', ''

Winter Meeting ''Winter Meeting'' is a 1948 American drama film directed by Bretaigne Windust and starring Bette Davis and Jim Davis. The screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by Grace Zaring Stone (under the pseudonym Ethel Vance), was written by ...

'', and ''

Escape Escape or Escaping may refer to: Computing * Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation ** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...

''. She also used the pseudonym Ethel Vance.

Biography

Born in New York City in 1891, Zaring Stone was the great-great-granddaughter of social reformer Robert Owen. Her mother died during her childhood. She started writing in St. Thomas in the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...

, where she lived with her husband, Ellis Spencer Stone (1889-1956), later a commodore in the U.S. Navy (where he commanded all of the aircraft carriers at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 one were lost as they were not at Pearl Harbor that day. Later, she and her husband moved to

Stonington, Connecticut The town of Stonington is located in New London County, Connecticut in the state's southeastern corner. It includes the borough of Stonington (borough), Connecticut, Stonington, the villages of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Pawcatuck, Lords Point, and W ...

. They had one child, the author and gardener,

Eleanor Perenyi Eleanor Spencer Stone Perényi (January 4, 1918 – May 3, 2009) was a gardener and author. She wrote several books including ''Green Thoughts'', a collection of essays based on her own gardening experiences. Biography Eleanor Perenyi was the dau ...

. Zaring Stone had used the pseudonym of Ethel Vance to write her 1939 anti-Nazi thriller ''Escape'' to avoid jeopardizing her daughter, who was living in occupied Europe during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Editions of her books after World War II sometimes credited her as "Grace Zaring Stone (Ethel Vance)", as ''Escape'' was her best-known book at the time of the war.''The Cold Journey'' author credit, 1946 Bantam Books edition Three of her novels --''The Bitter Tea of General Yen'', ''Escape'', and ''Winter Meeting''—were adapted for film. In 1955, ''Escape'' was translated into German and published in Germany as ''Die Flucht''.

Death

Zaring Stone died on September 29, 1991 at the Mary Elizabeth Nursing Center in

Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton, Connecticut, Groton and Stonington, Connecticut, United States. Historically, Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in ...

, aged 100.

Bibliography

*''Letters to a Djinn'', 1922 *''The Heaven and Earth of Dona Elena'', 1929 *''The Bitter Tea of General Yen'', 1930 *''The Almond Tree'', 1931 (published in England as ''All the Daughters of Music'') *''The Cold Journey'', 1934 *''Escape'', 1939 (as "Ethel Vance") *''Reprisal'', 1942 (as "Ethel Vance") *''Winter Meeting'', 1946 (as "Ethel Vance") *''The Secret Thread'', 1949 (as "Ethel Vance") *''The Grotto'', 1951 (published in England as ''My Son is Mortal'' under the "Ethel Vance" pseudonym) *''Althea'', 1962 *''Dear Deadly Cara'', 1968 The Bitter Tea of General Yen, The Cold Journey, Escape, Reprisal and Winter Meeting were published as

Armed Services Edition Armed Services Editions (ASEs) were small paperback books of fiction and nonfiction that were distributed in the American military during World War II. From 1943 to 1947, some 122 million copies of more than 1,300 ASE titles were distributed to s ...

s during WWII.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Grace Zaring 1891 births 1991 deaths Novelists from Connecticut 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers American women novelists American women short story writers American centenarians People from Stonington, Connecticut 20th-century American short story writers Women centenarians