Dorothy Baker

Dorothy Baker (April 21, 1907 – June 17, 1968) was an American novelist who wrote the lesbian pulp novel Trio (1943), along with widely-successful romance novels. She married poet Howard Baker and together they composed fiction and plays. Early life and education Baker was born Dorothy Alice Dodds on April 21, 1907 in Missoula, Montana to Raymond Branson Dodds and Alice Sowers Grady. Dorothy was raised in California, where her father worked in the oil business. As a child, she played the violin, but became crippled with polio and resigned to write about music instead of playing it. She studied at Occidental College and Whittier College, then transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, from where she graduated in 1929 with a B.A. in French. She was a member of the sorority Gamma Phi Beta. Upon graduation, she traveled to France where she met her future husband, the poet Howard Baker. The two married on August 22, 1930. The couple moved back to California where Dorothy wrote her first novel while completing her M.A. in French from UCLA, which she received in 1934. After finishing her Master's, Baker taught at a small preparatory school until the mid-30s when she left to pursue a writing career.