Lucia Chamberlain

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Lucia Chamberlain
A young white woman with dark hair in a bouffant updo, wearing a hat and seated in a chair
Chamberlain, photographed by Zaida Ben-Yusuf before 1906
Born(1882-02-16)February 16, 1882
San Francisco, California
DiedDecember 3, 1978(1978-12-03) (aged 96)
Santa Cruz, California
OccupationWriter
RelativesMary Curtis Richardson (aunt)

Lucia Chamberlain (February 16, 1882 – December 3, 1978) was an American novelist. Her 1909 book The Other Side of the Door was the basis of a 1916 film of the same name, and her 1917 story The Underside formed the basis of the 1920 film Blackmail.[1][2] The 1916 film The Wedding Guest is also based on her writing.[3]

Early life

Chamberlain was born in San Francisco,[4][5] the daughter of John Chamberlain and Leila Curtis Chamberlain. Her maternal grandfather Lucien Curtis was an engraver from Connecticut,[6] and her mother had a wood engraving business in the city in the 1870s.[7][8] Her aunt, Mary Curtis Richardson, was a noted portrait artist.[9][10] She and her sister were encouraged to write by Canadian poet Bliss Carman.[11]

Career

WorldCat lists Chamberlain's genres of writing as fiction, detective and mystery fiction, short stories,[12] and Western fiction.[13] At least two of her books were translated into Swedish and published as Den stulna ringen (The Stolen Ring)[14] and Falska indicier (False Clues).[15]

H. L. Mencken, writing in The Smart Set in 1909, described The Other Side of the Door as: "A mildly diverting tale of adventure, with the scene laid in early San Francisco, and a fiery Latin flavor in some of the characters."[16]

Chamberlain wrote her first two books, Mrs. Essington and The Coast of Chance, in collaboration with her older sister, Esther,[17] who owned an advertising agency in New York.[18][19] Mrs. Essington was reviewed in The New York Times.[20] Esther died in 1908.[11]

In 1932, Chamberlain co-organized an exhibition of works by Mary Curtis Richardson, at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.[9]

Personal life

Lucia Chamberlain lived on Russian Hill in San Francisco.[21] She died in 1978, in Santa Cruz, California, aged 96 years.[22]

Selected publications

  • Chamberlain, Esther; Chamberlain, Lucia (1905). Mrs Essington: The Romance of a House-Party. New York: Century.
  • Chamberlain, Esther; Chamberlain, Lucia (1908). The Coast of Chance. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
  • Chamberlain, Lucia (1909). The Other Side of the Door. New York: Grosset & Dunlap.
  • Chamberlain, Lucia (1910). Son of the Wind. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.[23]
  • Chamberlain, Lucia. Connors at Shungopovi (From Everybody's Magazine, September 1905).[24]

References

  1. . Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  2. ^ "Movie Girl of Yesterday is to Return to Screen". The Oklahoma City Times. July 6, 1920. p. 15. Retrieved April 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "The Wedding Guest". Silent Era. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  4. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  5. . Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  6. ^ "Lucien Curtis - Biography", AskART, retrieved April 2, 2022
  7. ^ "Historical Locations of San Francisco Women Printers". FoundSF. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  8. .
  9. ^ a b "Mary Curtis Richardson 1848–1931: Biography and Works" Bancroft Library.
  10. ^ Larsen, Hanna Astrup (March 25, 1907). "Mary Curtis Richardson Talks of Art for Art's Sake". San Francisco Call. Retrieved April 2, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  11. ^ a b Jerome, Lucy Baker (July 4, 1909). "A San Francisco Novel by Two San Francisco Girls". The San Francisco Call. p. 11. Retrieved April 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Chamberlain, Lucia (November 1907). "The Love She Gave Him: A Story of an Engaged Girl's Strange Dilemma". Ladies' Home Journal. 24: 20 – via ProQuest.
  13. ^ "Chamberlain, Lucia". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  14. OCLC 186072535
    . Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  15. . Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  16. ^ Mencken, H. L. (May–August 1909). "Novels and other books - chiefly bad". The Smart Set. 28: 152–160.
  17. ^ "Two Clever Novels". Los Angeles Herald. May 21, 1905. p. 38. Retrieved April 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Niklook. "The Coast of Chance". Etsy. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  19. ^ The Book News Monthly Volume 27. J. Wanenmacher. 1908. pp. 761–762, 775. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  20. ^ "Love's Sacrifices". The New York Times. June 3, 1905. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  21. ^ "Gossip of Books and Writers". San Francisco Call. August 29, 1909. p. 7. Retrieved April 2, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  22. ^ "Chamberlain (death notice)". Santa Cruz Sentinel. December 5, 1978. p. 26. Retrieved April 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. OCLC 263164851
    . Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  24. . Retrieved April 2, 2022.

External links

Media related to Lucia Chamberlain at Wikimedia Commons