Thelma L. Strabel (19 December 1900 – 28 May 1959) was an American novelist who specialized in tales of the American South and sea adventures. She is best known for her novel '' Reap the Wild Wind'', which was serialized in the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'' and became a successful film.

Biography

Strabel was born in

Crown Point, Indiana Crown Point is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 34,884 per the 2023 American Community Survey. The city was incorporated in 1868. On October 31, 1834, Solon Robinson and his family became ...

on December 19, 1900, the first child of grocer John George Strabel and his wife Nannsie.1920 United States Federal Census, Urbana (Champaign) Illinois, District 47 (For unknown reasons, Strabel later claimed Pennsylvania as her birthplace.)Dust jacket of 1942 edition of ''Reap the Wild Wind'', Triangle Books She was the great-granddaughter of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

's private secretary, General John Hall.Charleroi (Pennsylvania) Mail, May 31, 1957 She grew up in Champaign-Urbana,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

,Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, July 8, 1916 but spent much of her youth also in southwestern Pennsylvania, her mother's native district. Strabel published her first short story in the children's section of a Pittsburgh newspaper. At 16, she worked as a census enumerator for the local census board. She graduated from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

and later became a fashion reporter in Paris and an advertising copywriter for the Abraham & Straus department store.New York Times, May 29, 1959 While convalescing from an illness in Switzerland, she began to write fiction as a vocation. Among her early works are ''Smart Woman'' (1933), ''Streamline Marriage'' (1937), ''For Richer -- Or For Poorer?'' (1938), and ''You Can't Escape Forever'' (1938). She wrote several novels set in exotic locales ranging from Caribbean islands to the jungles of Peru. Her best known story, ''Reap the Wild Wind'' (1940), is a romantic saga of the wreckers in and around

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Producer-director Cecil B. DeMille bought the novel and, with numerous alterations, produced a popular movie version starring

Paulette Goddard Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress and socialite. Her career spanned six decades, from the 1920s to the early 1970s. She was a prominent leading actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood ...

and

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne, was an American actor. Nicknamed "Duke", he became a Pop icon, popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood' ...

in 1942. Strabel was so enamored of Key West and its unique history that she built a house there following the sale of the story to ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

'' in 1940. The house, located at 400 South Street, was described by Strabel, not without argument, as the southernmost house in the United States. It remained a popular site for visitors to the island until its demolition and replacement by a larger house. Strabel's later novels and stories include ''Storm to the South'' (1944), a romance of Bolivarian

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, ''You Were There'' (a Woman's Home Companion serialized novel, filmed as '' Undercurrent'' 946, and ''Caribee'' (1957), a romantic novel revolving around the

Mount Pelée Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée ( ; , ; ), meaning "bald mountain" or "peeled mountain" in French, is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the Caribbean ...

volcanic disaster of 1902.

Personal life

Strabel married David P. Godwin, who was the chief of fire control for the U.S. Forest Service, an agency which served as the subject of her short story ''The Forest Ranger'' (also filmed in 1942, as '' The Forest Rangers''). Godwin was killed in a plane crash June 13, 1947, and Strabel never remarried. Strabel died of cancer on May 28, 1959, in

Washington DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

. She was buried in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

.Washington Post, May 29, 1959

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strabel, Thelma People from Key West, Florida 1900 births 1959 deaths People from Crown Point, Indiana 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American novelists American women novelists Novelists from Florida Novelists from Indiana Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C.