Ella Leffland
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Ella Leffland (November 25, 1931 – September 18, 2024) was an American novelist and short story writer. Highly regarded by other writers, her novels demonstrate stunning mastery of the techniques of realistic fiction; but Leffland uses her facility to illuminate characters whose imaginative lives are rich and often strange. The settings of most of her works are in northern California, where she grew up; she is perhaps best known for her semi-autobiographical novel Rumors of Peace (1979; reprinted as a "rediscovered classic" in 2011) about a girl coming of age during World War II. The fascination with personal and social evil that Leffland explores in Rumors of Peace emerges powerfully in her ambitious historical novel based on the life of Hermann Göring, Knight, Death and the Devil, published in 1990.
Biography
[edit]Leffland was born and raised in Martinez, California. She attended San Jose State University. Her story "Last Courtesies", published in Harper's Magazine, won an O. Henry Award First Prize in 1977.[1] She has written five novels and a collection of short stories, including Mrs. Munck (1970), a gothic tale of a woman's vengeance on the man who abandoned her decades before, made into a film adapted, directed, and starring Diane Ladd.[2] She has also written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review.
Leffland won the 2014 Gina Berriault Award from Fourteen Hills Review at San Francisco State University.[3] Leffland resided and continued to write in San Francisco.[4]
Leffland died on September 18, 2024, at the age of 92.[5]
Bibliography
[edit]- Mrs. Munck (1970)
- Love Out of Season (1974)
- Rumors of Peace (1979)
- Last Courtesies and Other Stories (1980)
- The Knight, Death and the Devil (1990)
- Breath and Shadows (1999)
References
[edit]- ^ "The O. Henry Prize Stories". www.randomhouse.com. Retrieved 2020-11-03.
- ^ "Mrs. Munck". IMDb.com. Jan 28, 1996. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
- ^ "Gina Berriault Award reading: Ella Leffland - Creative State - College of Liberal & Creative Arts - San Francisco State University". Archived from the original on 2014-05-03. Retrieved 2014-05-03.
- ^ "HarperCollins Web site". Harpercollins.com. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
- ^ "Ella Leffland - 2024 - Santos-Robinson Mortuary". www.tributearchive.com. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
External links
[edit]- Reading group guide to Breath and Shadows More Guides | ReadingGroupGuides.com
- New York Times book reviews of Knight, Death and the Devil by Thomas Keneally ("The Fuhrer's Right-Hand Man") and by Herbert Mitgang ("The Life and Times of Goring, as Fiction")
- Ella Leffland speaking for Martinez, California Oral History project Video on YouTube
- Writers without Computers: Ella Leffland by Sarah Broderick [1] Archived 2016-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1931 births
- 2024 deaths
- 20th-century American novelists
- American women novelists
- American women short story writers
- O. Henry Award winners
- People from Martinez, California
- Novelists from San Francisco
- San Jose State University alumni
- 20th-century American women writers
- 20th-century American short story writers
- 21st-century American women