Grace Steele Woodward (September 14, 1899 – December 18, 1987) was an American writer and historian known for non-fiction books.
Biography
Early life and education
Grace Steele was born on September 14, 1899, in Joplin, Missouri. Her family moved to Webb City, Missouri, where she graduated from Webb City High School in 1917.
Woodward attended the University of Missouri, the University of Oklahoma, and Teachers College at Columbia University in New York.
Career
Steele wanted to be an actress and she worked as a professional storyteller.
She married Guy Hendon Woodward, an attorney, in 1920; she had children before she began her writing career with a course at the University of Tulsa. Her stories appeared in Parents, Forecast, and Holland's Magazine. Sometimes she wrote under the pseudonym Marian Doane to protect the privacy of her children.
Her first book, The Man Who Conquered Pain (1962) was about William T.G. Morton, the dentist who promoted the user of ether. Her second book, The Cherokees (1963) was a history of the Cherokee tribe and it received widespread acclaim. Her third book, published in 1969, was a biography of Pocahontas. It won first prize from the Oklahoma State Writers. Her fourth book, The Secrets of Sherwood Forest, was co-authored with her husband and published in 1973; it covered the drilling of oil in Sherwood Forest during World War II.
She lived in Tulsa.
Personal life, death, and legacy
Woodward was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1968. She was a member of .
Grace Steele Woodward died on December 18, 1987. Her husband, Guy Woodward, had died in 1979.
Works
The Man Who Conquered Pain: A Biography of William Thomas Green Morton. Beacon Press, 1962. The Cherokees. University of Oklahoma Press, 1963. Pocahontas. University of Oklahoma Press, 1969. The Secrets of Sherwood Forest: Oil Production in England During World War II. With Guy H. Woodward. University of Oklahoma Press, 1973.