Mary Hastings Bradley

Born in Chicago in 1882, this American writer graduated from Smith College in 1905 and went on to build a varied career as a novelist, travel writer, lecturer, and journalist. Early travel in Egypt inspired novels including The Palace of Darkened Windows and The Fortieth Door, both of which later reached the screen.

She became especially known for writing about travel and exploration. With her husband, Herbert Edwin Bradley, and their daughter Alice, she traveled in the Belgian Congo in the early 1920s; those experiences fed books such as On the Gorilla Trail, Alice in Jungleland, and Alice in Elephantland. She also wrote mysteries, short fiction, and the "Old Chicago" historical novels, showing how comfortably she moved between popular adventure and carefully researched history.

Later in life, she worked as a war correspondent for Collier's in 1945, reporting on women in the military in Europe. She was also a frequent public speaker and an active member of literary and geographic societies. Today, she is remembered both for her energetic, wide-ranging writing life and as the mother of Alice Sheldon, the science fiction author better known as James Tiptree, Jr.