Wilbur Daniel Steele 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

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

.

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), Their Town (1952) and "Hi Denise" (2011). His second wife was actress Norma Mitchell, with whom he co-wrote the play The Post Road.

Fiction

• Storm, 1914
• 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) Post Road, produced 1934; printed 1935.
• (with Anthony Brown) How Beautiful with Shoes, produced 1935. From the story by Steele.
• Luck, in William Kozlenko (ed.) One Hundred Nonroyalty Plays, 1941.

External links