Elswyth Thane

Helen Elswyth Thane Ricker Beebe (May 16, 1900 – July 31, 1984) was an American romance novelist. Born in Burlington, Iowa, she was the daughter of a local teacher and high school principal. The family moved to New York City in 1918, and "Helen Ricker" changed her name to "Elswyth Thane". She began working as a freelance writer in the 1920s, and became a newspaper writer and a Hollywood screenwriter. Her first novel, Riders of the Wind, was published in 1926. Her novel, The Tudor Wench, about Elizabeth I of England, was made into a play. She was a collector of scarves.

Helen Elswyth Thane Ricker Beebe
Elswyth Thane (far right) and husband 'Will' Beebe (2nd from left) with friends at home near Wilmington, Vermont in 1957
Pen nameElswyth Thane
OccupationNovelist, journalist, screenwriter
NationalityAmerican
Period1926-1976
Genrehistorical fiction, romance

On September 22, 1927, at 27 years old she married 50-year-old naturalist and explorer William Beebe; it was his second marriage.[1] Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt was one of the guests at the wedding.

Beebe died in 1962, leaving only half of his estate to his widow. She lived on the couple's farm in Wilmington, Vermont. Her last work, Fighting Quaker: Nathaniel Greene, was published in 1972. When she died, she left her papers to the University of Iowa.

Thane is most famous for her "Williamsburg" series of historical fiction. The books cover several generations of two families from the American Revolutionary War up to World War II. In later books, the action moves from Williamsburg to New York City, Richmond, Virginia and England. The novels are in chronological order:

  • Dawn's Early Light (1943)
  • Yankee Stranger (1944)
  • Ever After (1945)
  • The Light Heart (1947)
  • Kissing Kin (1948)
  • This Was Tomorrow (1951)
  • Homing (1957)

Other works

(alphabetically)

  • The Bird Who Made Good (1947)
  • Bound to Happen (1930)
  • Cloth of Gold (1929)
  • Dolley Madison, Her Life and Times (1970)
  • Echo Answers (1927)
  • England Was an Island Once (1940)
  • The Family Quarrel: A Journey through the Years of the Revolution (1959)
  • The Fighting Quaker: Nathanael Greene (1972)
  • From This Day Forward (1941)
  • His Elizabeth (1928)
  • Letter to a Stranger (1954)
  • The Lost General (1953)
  • Melody, a Romance (1950)
  • Mount Vernon: The Legacy: The Story of Its Preservation and Care since 1885 (1967)
  • Mount Vernon Family (1968)
  • Mount Vernon Is Ours: The Story of Its Preservation (1966)
  • Potomac Squire (1963)
  • Queen's Folly (1937)
  • Reluctant Farmer (1950) aka The Strength of the Hills (1976)
  • Remember Today: Leaves from a Guardian Angel's Notebook (1941)
  • Riders of the Wind 1926)
  • Tryst (1939)
  • The Tudor Wench (1932)
  • The Virginia Colony (1969)
  • Washington's Lady 1960)
  • Young Mr. Disraeli (1936; play)

Footnotes
  1. "THANE, Elswyth [1900-1984] -- American writer"
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