Wilbur Daniel Steele (17 March 1886,

Greensboro Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

– 26 May 1970, Stamford,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

) was a U.S. author and playwright. He has been called "America's recognised master of the popular short story" between

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the Great Depression.Martin Bucco, 'Steele, Wilbur Daniel', in ''20th Century American Literature'', Macmillan, 1980, pp. 550–552. 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 Norma Stafford Mitchell (May 8, 1884 – May 29, 1967) was an American actress and writer. Early life Mitchell was born in Eastham, Massachusetts, the daughter of George William Mitchell and Mary Louisa Horton Mitchell. Her father was a minin ...

, 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 A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries, only major towns had a post house and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due ...

'', produced 1934; printed 1935. * (with Anthony Brown) ''How Beautiful with Shoes'', produced 1935. From the story by Steele. * ''Luck'', in

William Kozlenko William Kozlenko was a playwright, screenwriter, and editor of multiple stage-play compilations and anthologies, as well as being a founding editor of ''One-Act Play Magazine'', which published from 1937–1942,

(ed.) ''One Hundred Nonroyalty Plays'', 1941.

References

Steele Profile

External links

* * * *
Wilbur Daniel Steele Papers
housed at Stanford University Libraries 1886 births 1970 deaths Writers from Greensboro, North Carolina American male short story writers American male novelists O. Henry Award winners 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers Novelists from North Carolina {{US-writer-stub