author
Grace Denio Litchfield
1849–1944
An American poet and novelist from a prominent Brooklyn family, she turned years of travel and a long struggle with illness into fiction and verse with an observant, often cosmopolitan feel. Her work moved between society novels, travel-shaped stories, and poetry published in leading magazines of her day.
1 Audiobook
Only an Incident
by Grace Denio Litchfield
About the author
Born in Brooklyn Heights, New York City, on November 19, 1849, she was the youngest daughter of attorney Edwin Clark Litchfield and Grace Hill Hubbard Litchfield. Much of her early life was spent in Europe, and accounts of her life note that long periods of illness kept her confined for years, sharpening the close observation that later marked her writing.
She published both poetry and fiction, with Only an Incident appearing in 1883 among her early books. Her writing often drew on places she knew well through travel, including Europe and the Mediterranean, and she contributed poems to well-known magazines as well as publishing collections and novels.
Grace Denio Litchfield died on December 4, 1944. Though not widely read today, she remains an interesting late-19th- and early-20th-century literary figure whose work joined personal resilience, travel, and polished storytelling.