Mary Hastings Bradley (April 19, 1882 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

– October 25, 1976) was a traveler and author. She was the mother of the author Alice Sheldon ("

James Tiptree, Jr. Alice Bradley Sheldon (born Alice Hastings Bradley; August 24, 1915 – May 19, 1987) was an American science fiction and fantasy author better known as James Tiptree, Jr., a pen name she used from 1967 to her death. It was not publicly known ...

").

Life and work

She was born Mary Wilhelmina Hastings in 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1905 where she majored in English. After graduation she traveled to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

with a cousin and was inspired to write "The Palace of Darkened Windows" and "The Fortieth Door" detailing the life of the veiled and secluded women of Egypt. Both of these stories were later made into films, providing a further audience for Bradley's writings. While doing research for her book ''The Favor of Kings'' in Oxford, she met her husband Herbert Edwin Bradley. Herbert Bradley was a lawyer, big game hunter, traveler and explorer who later helped found the

Brookfield Zoo Brookfield Zoo, also known as the Chicago Zoological Park, is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. It houses around 450 species of animals in an area of . It opened on July 1, 1934, and quickly gained international recogn ...

. They were married in 1910 and five years later they had a daughter, Alice. In 1921 and 1922, Mary, Herbert and Alice traveled to the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

with her uncle, Carl E. Akeley of the American Museum of Natural History, for specimens of the mountain gorilla for display in the museum. These expeditions were described in her books, ''On the Gorilla Trail'', ''Alice in Jungleland'' and ''Alice in Elephantland''. In 1938 her story "The Life of the Party" was chosen to appear in The O. Henry Prize Stories anthology. As a war correspondent for ''Colliers'' magazine in 1945, Mary took on the difficult task of reporting on women in the military in Italy, France and Germany. At the close of the war she recounted her tour of concentration camps in a magazine feature series on the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. Bradley was a prolific author of mysteries, travel books, short fiction and novels, most notably the Old Chicago series of historical novels. The four books in this series — ''The Fort'', ''The Duel'', ''Debt of Honor'' and ''Metropolis'' — cover a span of Chicago history from 1812, when it was still part of frontier America, to the World's Fair in 1893. They were originally published together in a slipcased edition in 1933."Old Chicago"
''Kirkus Review''. She was frequently asked to lecture on her travels and was inducted into the

Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981. It is based in Washington, D.C., and h ...

, whose membership included

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...

and

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

. Bradley was one of the few female presidents of the Society of Midland Authors as well as an active clubwoman in Chicago. It was Bradley's death in late October 1976 that inadvertently revealed that her daughter, Alice B. Sheldon, was the prominent science fiction writer

Selected books

; Expedition-related books * ''On the Gorilla Trail'' (1922) * ''Caravans and Cannibals'' (1926) * ''Alice in Jungleland'' (1927) * ''Alice in Elephantland'' (1929) * ''Trailing the Tiger'' (1929) ;Old Chicago historical novels *''The Fort'' (1933) *''The Duel'' (1933) *''Debt of Honor'' (1933) *''Metropolis'' (1933) ;Other books * ''The Favor of Kings'' (1912) * ''The Palace of Darkened Windows'' (1914) * ''The Splendid Chance'' (1915) * ''The Wine of Astonishment'' (1919) * ''The Fortieth Door'' (1920) * ''The Innocent Adventuress'' (1921) * ''Murder in the Room 700'' (1931) * ''The Road of Desperation'' (1932) * ''Unconfessed'' (1934) * ''A Hanging Matter'' (1937) * ''Pattern of Three'' (1937) * ''The Hunters'' (1943) * ''Incident in Berlin'' (1944) * ''Understudy'' (1946) * ''Seventy-Five Years of Best Girls'' (1948) * ''Murder in the Family'' (1951) * ''Nice People Murder'' (1952) * ''Nice People Poison'' (1952)

References

External links

* * *
Short Biography on Mary Hastings Bradley at Graceland Cemetery

The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley, Mary Hastings 1882 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American novelists American women short story writers Writers from Chicago Burials at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago) Smith College alumni American women novelists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American short story writers American hunters Novelists from Illinois Members of the Society of Woman Geographers