Gerald Warner Brace (1901 - 1978)

Genre: General Fiction, Non-Fiction

Born on 23 Sept. 1901 on Long Island, New York, Gerald (Jerry) Brace was a writer and teacher who maintained a summer residence on Deer Isle. He earned his undergraduate degree at Amherst College and graduate degrees at Harvard. After teaching at Dartmouth and Mount Holyoke, Brace spent the rest of his teaching career at Boston University. He died (scroll down) in Blue Hill, Maine, in July 1978. His son, C. Loring Brace IV, is a prominent biological anthropologist (more at Wikipedia).

Most of Brace's novels are set in New England. They include:

• The Islands (1936), set in Maine
• The Wayward Pilgrims (1938), set in a Vermont train depot
• Light on a Mountain (1941)
• The Garretson Chronicle (1947), depicting three generations of a Massachusetts family
• A Summer's Tale (1949)
• The Spire (1952)
• The World of Carrick's Cove (1947), a nominee for the 1958 National Book Fiction Award
• Bell's Landing (1955)
• Winter Soltice (1960)
• The Wind's Will (1964)
• The Department (1968/1983), which was translated and published in Bengali in 1970

In addition to his fiction, Brace published literary works such as The Age of the Novel (1957) and The Stuff of Fiction (1969). In 1976 he published his autobiography, Days That Were, which included his own illustrations. He was an experienced sailor and published a book about sailing titled Between Wind and Water in 1966. A recently published biography, Gerald Warner Brace: Writer, Sailor, Teacher, written by former graduate assistant and friend Charlotte Holt Lindgren, provides insights into a prolific writer whose work is now little known.

His property in Deer Isle is available for rental.


Last Update: 06/09/2007

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