Background

Faith Baldwin was born on October 1, 1893 in New Rochelle, New York, the daughter of Stephen Charles Baldwin, a well-known trial lawyer, and Edith Hervey Finch.

Education

She attended the Brooklyn Heights Academy and finishing schools in Brooklyn and Briarcliff Manor, New York.

Career

Her education, along with gatherings of family and social equals at teatime, solo trips to visit relatives in Kansas City and California, and private luncheons with actresses to whom she had written fan letters, helped to create a personal sophistication that was later reflected in her stories. Between 1914 and 1916, as World War I raged in Europe, Baldwin lived in Germany with a close friend of her mother's. "Life didn't change for us because of the war, " she said. "I was sent to cooking school and learned German, but we continued to go to the opera. " Back home, she worked for the War Camp Community Service. In her last years, she lived and wrote outside Norwalk, Connecticut, in "Fable Farm, " a fourteen-room house built in 1800.

Baldwin's first book, Mavis of Green Hill (1921), and several others set in the fictional town of Divine Corners were written for teenagers. From 1925 on, almost all of her novels were for women. In 1927 she sold her first serial to Good Housekeeping. Later she sold serialization rights to her books for as much as $55, 000. She agreed with critics who complained that her novels of romance among the wealthy created fantasies in the minds of lower- and middle-class women, saying that the "fantasy element" in her books allowed readers to identify with her characters. "The girl on the subway reads about the rich heroes and hopes she'll meet a man with $500, 000. But she also reads that the two young millionaires come together not through money but through love and personal honesty. So the reader understands that even if she can't marry a millionaire, she may have other rewards if she is true to herself. " In the 1930's, an era of frothy movies and radio soap operas, Baldwin reached the height of her success. In 1936, in the depths of the Great Depression, she earned more than $300, 000. Many of the three dozen novels and a handful of novelettes she wrote in that decade were first serialized in major national magazines, including Collier's, Good Housekeeping, Woman's Home Companion, Cosmopolitan, and American, and then published in book form. She also published two volumes of short stories. Two dozen of her books went into reprint editions. Three volumes were republished in England, and some were translated into German, French, or Spanish editions. Three volumes were republished in England, and some were translated into German, French, or Spanish editions. Some of her novels were republished in omnibus editions, each volume containing several titles. Twice she collaborated with another prolific writer, Achmed Abdullah, on novels about the New York theater world. The first, Broadway Interlude (1929), was adapted (by the coauthors) as a play with the same title; the reviewers were not impressed. Girl-on-the-Make (1932) was their second book. Several of her novels focused on love triangles involving businessmen, their wives, and attractive secretaries. (A critic of these books said that Baldwin looked at the globe and found it triangular. ) Three of these and five other Baldwin novels were filmed with such major actors as Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, and Jean Harlow, including Wife Versus Secretary (1936) and Comet over Broadway (1938). In spite of all the Hollywood talent involved, one reviewer commented that the former film was, like many others, "inspired by Faith, produced in hope, and not always received with charity. " William K. Everson of the New School for Social Research said Baldwin's were the kind of stories "especially prevalent in the Thirties, a natural for housewives and spinsters. They'd all avidly consume the book, argue over the casting choices, see the films, and argue some more. "

Achievements

• Faith Baldwin has been listed as a notable writer by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Office Wife

    (Publisher Larry Fellowes (Lewis Stone) believes the perso...)

  • Beauty

    (Letty Lawson secures a loan from Mortimer Fisher and her ...)

  • Many Windows: Seasons of the Heart

    (An inspirational journey through the seasons, during whic...)

  • Face toward the spring;

    (FACE TOWARD THE SPRING by Faith Baldwin, Peter Davies, Lo...)

  • Skyscraper (Femmes Fatales)

    ( Lynn is an ambitious young woman who loves her job in t...)

  • New Girl in Town

    (Book is used and has been withdrawn from service from a L...)

  • Mavis of Green Hill

    (Faith Baldwin (October 1, 1893 – March 18, 1978) was a U....)

  • Station Wagon Set

    (Book by Faith Baldwin)

  • Rich Girl, Poor Girl

    (1945)

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Time said she "was an unabashed old pro who could write a chapter a day [combining] the surefire elements of romantic love and great wealth. "

Connections

On November 6, 1920, she married Hugh Hamlin Cuthrell, an American navy pilot she had met a year earlier; they had four children.

Father:

Stephen Charles Baldwin

Mother:

Edith Hervey Finch

Wife:

Hugh Hamlin Cuthrell