Anya Seton: A Writing Life

by Lucinda H. MacKethan

Anya Seton was the bestselling author of 10 historical novels, including the masterpieces Katherine and The Winthrop Woman, which are still widely beloved over 60 years after their publication; yet there has never before been a book-length biography about this great American writer. Ann Seton was born in 1904 the daughter of two celebrity writers: Ernest Thompson Seton and Grace Gallatin Seton. At age 36 and self-renamed Anya, she placed her first novel with a major publisher. Anya the author was protective of her private life yet also mused, “I suppose I write myself over and over again in my heroines.” She reinvented herself within carefully researched historical settings and biographical materials that provided both escape and wish-fulfillment. In journal entries, letters, and “self-analyses,” she provides an intimate study of what it meant to her to be a writer. She wrote probably her own best epitaph while working on her masterpiece, Katherine: “My forte is story, and a peculiarly meticulous (fearful, yes) desire to weave historical fact into story. Make history come alive and as exciting as the past is to me.” 

Genres: Biography, Writing, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Womens

304 pages, Hardcover

Published August 4, 2020

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anya Seton is the author who made me love historical fiction, more years ago than I care to recount. Her Green Darkness is the first book I remember reading in the genre, and I was hooked.

This biography is based largely on Anya Seton's own journals, to which the author was given access by family members. Using these primary sources, as well as interviews with family members, press clippings, and other material, Lucinda H. MacKethan takes us into a world peopled by the wealthy and privileged classes. Anya, the daughter of Ernest Thompson Seton, seems always to be competing with her father's reputation while still trying to establish herself as an author.

Sadly, Anya is not taken seriously by those around her until after the sale of My Theodosia ... and even then it's questionable. Her work is dismissed by the more serious literati even as she begins to provide a then-significant percentage of the household income.

We also see Anya's difficult relationship with two spouses, her children, her parents ... she seems o have been fairly tempestuous. Alcohol and pill abuse were also a big part of her life, even by her own admission.

That Anya Seton was able to write as many well-researched and entertaining books as she did under numerous circumstances is surprising, to be honest. I'm not sure I could have stood up under the various pressures myself. This book was often a hard read because of the subject matter. Still, fans of the author are sure to enjoy an insider view of her life.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read my first Anya Seton novel, “Green Darkness,” while cruising the Mediterranean Sea on my old Navy ship, in 1974. I was 19 years old, a young pup feeling my way through the literary world. Once I completed the book, I realized I had found a real treasure, including the author who wrote it. The book was recommended to me by a shipmate, and once I read the first few pages, I was hooked. In subsequent years, I also read “Avalon,” “Katherine,” “Dragonwyck,” and “Smouldering Fires.” I was always intrigued by Ms. Seton, and always wondered what made her tick. Now I know, thanks to this wonderfully revealing book by Lucinda MacKethan. A true biographer stays objective throughout, and MacKethan tells Anya’s story poignantly and faithfully, warts and all. Highly entertaining, and a vividly painted and smooth writing style. If you’re into the fascinating and historical world of Anya Seton, this book is a must read.

[Kathy Moberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an illumninating and well-written biography of an author I've read and re-read since I was a teenager. I appreciate knowing all these details about Anya Seton's life and her writing process.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a truly abysmal disappointment this biography was. If I wanted to read Seton’s diaries for 300 pages I would have. MacKethan gives us no character sketch of the author, no interviews with family or friends, no historical context for the era in which Seton was writing in. MacKethan is too enamored of her subject to objectively show her in any sort of critical juxtaposition against her peers and detractors. What we are left with is page after page of Seton’s ponderous journal entries wherein she takes daily naps, has three or four existential crises an hour, starts drinking highballs at 4pm, and gets in drunken fights with her sexually repressed spouses. I felt like the author shared more interesting information about Seton in the afterword than she did in the entire book. What a colossal waste of my time. The author of Katherine, Green Darkness, and The Winthrop Woman deserved so much better.

[Sandy Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author captures the personal and professional journey of a prolific historical fiction writer through intimate details shared in journals written over 30 years. Not only do we learn how Seton chose a character, we watch her create a gripping story of an imagined life through intense historical research. The author links the narratives in Seton’s novels with her life long struggle to define herself as an individual, a daughter a writer, a wife, and a mother n a time when women were not supported in these choices. The whole Seton family of writers and their famous acquaintances keep us wanting to know what happens next.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and illustrative biography

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that this is in conversation with the other biography I am currently reading about Shirley Jackson.

[Nicole Breeden · Rating 3 out of 5]

bogged down with too many trivial and mundane details. Continue to consider her among my favorite authors

[A.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was searching for Seton titles in Audible one day and this popped up in the Plus catalogue.

It is not quite what I expected. I confess I was hoping for more info about how she wrote her books. And after reading this I wonder HOW she wrote her books? She seemed to be off her head on alcohol and pills most of the time; ah, mother’s little helper, eh?

The author got access to her diaries but not to the last one - and I don’t know about you - but I’d be trying to find out what was IN that diary… there is not a lot of outside sources here.

Her parents fell into the careless rich people category who did not really notice that they had a child. And only the one, so no siblings to play with or to provide back up. Her father set up the boy scouts of America, and seemed eternally disappointed that she was NOT A BOY but also did not try to treat her like a boy. So many people had formative life experiences with Ernest Thompson Seton; experiences that it seems she did not have, camping in the wilderness in tepees and so on.

I find it intriguing to compare her naturalist father with Ursula le Guin’s… [that might just be me]

Her drive and ambition are clearly on the page. And she was extremely successful; selling books for book club of America serialised titles and to the movies.

3 stars