Discipline: Literature

Vera Caspary

Discipline: Literature
Region: New York, NY
MacDowell Fellowships: 1969, 1972
Vera Caspary (1899–1987) was a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter best known for her films Laura, Letter to Three Wives, and Les Girls. In her 18 published novels, 10 screenplays, and four stage plays, Caspary's main theme, whether in a murder mystery, drama, or musical comedy, was the working woman and her right to lead her own life, to be independent. Her first novel, The White Girl, published in 1929, was about a black woman who leaves the South for Chicago and poses as a white. Her second novel, Thicker Than Water, was a study of Portuguese-Jewish family life in Chicago. Laura, her first mystery story, was published in 1943 by Houghton Mifflin, was followed by Bedelia and Murder at the Stork Club. Another mystery story, The Weeping and the Laughter, published in 1950 by Little Brown, became a national best seller. Her autobiography, The Secrets of Grown-Ups, was published in 1979 by McGraw Hill. The youngest of three children, Caspary was born and raised in Chicago, but moved to New York, where she lived until the end of her life.

Studios

Sorosis

Vera Caspary worked in the Sorosis studio.

Sorosis Studio was funded by the New York Carol Club of Sorosis. The small, masonry studio was designed by F. Winsor, Jr., the architect who also designed Savidge Library (1926) and Mixter Studio (1927). At the time of construction, the large porch on the southeast façade offered a spectacular mountain view that has since been obscured…

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