author
Frances Parkinson Keyes
1885–1970
A bestselling American novelist, memoirist, and biographer, she drew on politics, religion, and regional history to create widely read stories set in New England, Louisiana, and Europe. Her later books often reflected her Catholic faith and her deep interest in place, society, and tradition.
1 Audiobook
The Old Gray Homestead
by Frances Parkinson Keyes
About the author
Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1885, Frances Parkinson Keyes became one of the most popular American novelists of the mid-20th century. She also worked as a journalist, editor, memoirist, and biographer, and wrote with an easy, accessible style that helped her reach a very large readership.
Her life gave her unusual material. After marrying Henry Wilder Keyes, who later served as a U.S. senator from New Hampshire, she wrote about political and social life as well as fiction. Over time, her novels became especially associated with New England and Louisiana, and after converting to Roman Catholicism, she often brought Catholic ideas and characters into her work.
Keyes spent her later years in New Orleans, where she remained a prolific writer and became closely linked with the city's history and culture. She died there in 1970, leaving behind a long and varied body of work that once made her one of America's best-known popular authors.