Discipline: Literature

Esther McCoy

Discipline: Literature
Region: Santa Monica, CA
MacDowell Fellowships: 1967
Esther McCoy (1904-1989) was an American author and architectural historian who was instrumental in bringing the modern architecture of California to the attention of the world. In 1929, McCoy began to publish fiction, her work appearing in noted magazines such as The New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar, as well as in University quarterlies. Her short story "The Cape" was featured in The Best American Short Stories of 1950. In 1924, McCoy had met author Theodore Dreiser, and for more than a decade she conducted research for him. She wrote novels, short stories, and screenplays during her years in New York and after moving to Los Angeles. She continued to write fiction into the 1960s, though her first significant article on architecture had been published in 1945. McCoy and a friend, Allen Read, co-authored a series of detective novels under the pseudonym "Allan McRoyd." McCoy was also a journalist and active member of the Left who wrote for Direction, Upton Sinclair's EPIC [End Poverty in California] News, and the United Progressive News. In March 2012, East of Borneo Books published Piecing Together Los Angeles: An Esther McCoy Reader, the first collection of McCoy's writings, edited and with an essay by writer Susan Morgan.

Studios

Mansfield

Esther McCoy worked in the Mansfield studio.

The Helen Coolidge Mansfield Studio was donated by graduates of the Mansfield War Service Classes for Reconstruction Aides. Helen Mansfield helped found the New York MacDowell Club. The small, shingled frame structure with stone foundation was originally fronted on the west side by a neat white picket fence and gate, a garden, and a stone pathway…

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