Background

Hill was born on April 16, 1865 in Wellsville, New York, United States. She was the only daughter of Charles Montgomery Livingston and Marcia MacDonald. An older brother had died in infancy. Her father, a stern Presbyterian minister descended from the Schuyler family, was one of seven clergymen in the immediate family. Her name, Grace, was chosen for its theological meaning.

From childhood, literary inclinations were dominant. Her mother, a writer of children's stories, was a helpful critic.

Education

Hill was educated at home and in public schools in New York, New Jersey, and Ohio; she also studied at the Cincinnati Art School and at Elmira College, Elmira, New York.

Career

At the age of twenty-two, Hill published her first book, A Chautauqua Idyl (1887), previously printed as a magazine serial. Based on her regular attendance at chautauquas in the company of older members of her family, the story described a meadow of flowers that organized its own chautauqua. Her allegory enjoyed the prestige of a preface by Edward Everett Hale.

At her comfortable stone home in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, she settled into a prodigious career, soon averaging two novels a year. Surrounded by books and magazines in her second-floor study, she wrote tirelessly amid interruptions and disturbances. Early in her career, she made a highly satisfactory publishing agreement with the Philadelphia firm of J. B. Lippincott Co. This mutually helpful association continued throughout most of her career.

Although she claimed to have no set formula, Hill "used the same ingredients over and over again, mixing romance, adventure, conflict and religion". Her innocuous, simplistic stories were essentially pleasant tracts filled with strict morality and religion. Having withstood social temptations and evil influences, her heroines were rewarded with happiness and fulfillment. Her stories all closed in accordance with her homily "I feel that there is enough sadness and sorrow in the world, so I try to end all my books as beautifully as possible". Most of her novels were issued under her own name, but she also used the pen name Marcia Macdonald and for a brief period she wrote as Grace Livingston Hill Lutz, after having married Flavius Josephus Lutz.

Although her novels sold nearly four million copies during her lifetime and were translated into many languages, none of them ever reached the annual bestseller lists.

She died of cancer in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, in her eighty-second year and was buried in the family plot in the Johnstown, New York, cemetery. Her eightieth novel, on which she was working at the time of her death, was completed by her daughter, Ruth Munce.

Achievements

• Hill is remembered as a prolific author of over 100 novels and short stories. Typical titles included The Angel of His Presence (1902), The Story of a Whim (1902), The Girl from Montana (1907), and many other works. Her two most popular novels were The Witness (1917) and The Enchanted Barn (1918). She also wrote a religious column, "The Christian Endeavor Hour, " for newspapers in Philadelphia, Washington, and New York. She also contributed to the Salvation Army's service in World War I by collaborating with Evangeline Booth in the writing of The War Romance of the Salvation Army (1918). Her biographer, Jean Karr, characterized her novels as "more than a pleasant pastime for thousands of people; they were object lessons in clean living and thinking".

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Girl from Montana: By Grace Livingston Hill - Illustrated

    ( Why buy our paperbacks?   • Printed in USA on High ...)

  • The Tryst (Grace Livingston Hill #40)

    (What family secret drives Patricia to adopt a false ident...)

  • The Prodigal Girl (Love Endures)

    ( Teenager Betty Thornton is devastated when she learns t...)

  • The Best Man (Grace Livingston Hill #07)

    (Pursued by men desperate for secret information that coul...)

  • The Story of a Whim (Living Books Romance)

    (A case of mistaken identity leads a beautiful young woman...)

  • Dawn of the Morning (Grace Livingston Hill #43)

    (Dawn Rensselaer is a runaway bride, fleeing a husband she...)

  • Marcia Schuyler (Grace Livingston Hill #83)

    (Marcia takes her sister's place at the altar. When Kate r...)

  • The Angel of His Presence (Grace Livingston Hill Series)

    (Book by Hill, Grace Livingston)

  • Matched Pearls (Love Endures)

    ( Constance Courtland is rich. Beautiful. And haughty. Bu...)

  • Cloudy Jewel

Religion

Hill supported a Presbyterian mission Sunday school organized in an abandoned rural church near her home, in addition to lecturing before church and young people's groups.

Politics

Hill was an active supporter of the Salvation Army.

Personality

Hill's main luxury was a chauffeur-driven Lincoln. She disliked motion pictures and advised against them. Lively and energetic, with a firm voice and deep laugh, she never sought a secluded, contemplative life.

Particularly concerned with the moral development of her younger readers, she personally answered their letters seeking advice. She spoke without fee, for her royalties provided an altogether comfortable living.

Interests

• Writers

  Hill's aunt, Isabella Macdonald Alden, who wrote juvenile religious literature under the pen name Pansy, was her inspiration and idol.

• Sport & Clubs

  In her youth Hill enjoyed tennis and horseback riding.

Connections

On December 8, 1892, Hill married Reverend Thomas Guthrie Franklin Hill of Pittsburgh, in Hyattsville, Maryland. They had two daughters, Margaret Livingston and Ruth Glover. After seven years of marriage, her husband's death in 1899 from appendicitis forced her to write to support herself and her small daughters.

Then she married Flavius Josephus Lutz in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1904. The marriage ended in a separation.

Father:

Charles Montgomery Livingston

Spouse:

Flavius Josephus Lutz

Spouse:

Thomas Guthrie Franklin Hill

Brother:

Percy Livingston

mother :

Marcia B. (MacDonald) Livingston

Daughter:

Margaret Livingston Hill

Daughter:

Ruth Glover (Hill) Munce

References

• GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL: Her Story and Her Writings
• Twentieth Century Authors, First Supplement
• Who was Who in America: Vol. 2 1943-1950
• Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature (The Authors series)