Faith Baldwin

Faith Baldwin (October 1, 1893 – March 18, 1978) was an American writer of romance novels and other forms of fiction, often concentrating on women characters juggling career and family. The New York Times wrote that her books had "never a pretense at literary significance" and were popular because they "enabled lonely working people, young and old, to identify with her glamorous and wealthy characters". Early life Faith Baldwin was born on October 1, 1893, in New Rochelle, New York, the daughter of a well-known trial lawyer, Stephen Baldwin, and Edith Baldwin. Her cousin was screenwriter Paul Hervey Fox. After three years, her family moved to Manhattan and finally settled in Brooklyn Heights, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in New York City. In 1901, her younger sister Esther was born. In Brooklyn Heights, Baldwin lived an upscale childhood which would influence the settings and scenarios of her later work. She learned how to read at the age of three and wanted to become an actress, sending letters to actresses she admired and occasionally meeting them. According to Baldwin, her parents were startled by her reading at such an early age. She noted later in life that she never intended to become a writer despite her frequent practice, as she viewed acting as a way to become independent. Accustomed to an affluent lifestyle, Baldwin, in 1914, resided for two years in Europe, living with one of her mother's close friends in Dresden, Germany. She was sent to cooking school and learned German, even though World War I was raging. She later recalled, "Life didn't change for us because of the war. ... we continued to go to the opera." Baldwin returned to the United States in 1916, and after the U.S. entered the war, she began working for the War Camp Community Service. It was during her community service activities that she met Hugh H. Cantrell, a Navy pilot and executive of Brooklyn Union Gas Company; they were married in 1920. Career Baldwin's writing career began in earnest when her first novel, Mavis of Green Hill, was published in 1921 by Boston publisher Small, Maynard & Company. Six years later, in 1927, she sold her first serial to a magazine, Good Housekeeping. This led to more serials for "women's magazines" that published romance novels as six-part serials, and her popularity with the middle-class and working women audience quickly grew.