Gladys Huntington (1887–1959)

Gladys Huntington, née Parrish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a wealthy Quaker family. They lived in various homes in New York, Paris, London, Biarritz, Rome, and on the shores of Lake Como. She married Constant Huntington, an American who ran the London office of the publishing house Putnam's, with whom she had a daughter. Her first novel Carfrae's Comedy was published in 1915, and her play Barton's Folly was produced by the Arts Theater Club in London 10 years later. She also contributed stories to The New Yorker magazine. Her bestselling novel Madame Solario, still popular today, was published anonymously for fear of causing scandal in 1956, when she was nearly 70. After a series of family tragedies and plagued by ill health, she committed suicide in 1959. Her identity as the the author was finally revealed in 1986. A film adaptation of the book was made in 2012.