{{Short description|British writer (1887–1985)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} thumb|Susan Ertz in 1925 [[File:First edition of The Proselyte by Susan Ertz (book cover).jpg|thumb|First edition (1933), D. Appleton-Century]]
'''Susan Ertz''' (13 February 1887<ref>[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/ertz_susan "Ertz, Susan"], ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction''.</ref> – 11 April 1985) was an Anglo-American writer, known for her "sentimental tales of genteel life in the country."<ref name="Contemporary">''Contemporary Authors'', Thomson Gale, August 2003. {{ISBN|0-7876-6635-1}}</ref> She was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England to American parents Charles and Mary Ertz. She moved back and forth between both countries during her childhood but chose to live in England when she was 18. She married British Army soldier, Major John Ronald McCrindle in London in 1932.
A common theme running through her work involves a female character "who is thrust out on her own from a sheltered environment into a vaguely hostile external world with which she is initially unprepared to cope. Her coming to terms with this hostile world provides the fictional interest of [her] novels."<ref name="Contemporary"/> ''The Proselyte'', the story of a London woman who marries a Mormon missionary and moves with him to Utah, was one of her most highly praised books (even Mormons felt that in "her story the hardships and sorrows of the people are clearly portrayed"<ref>Levi E. Young quoted in [http://www.motleyvision.org/2012/sunday-lit-crit-sermon-levi-edgar-youngs-literary-acquaintances/ Sunday Lit Crit Sermon: Levi Edgar Young’s Literary Acquaintances] by Kent Larsen, ''A Motley Vision'', 20 May 2012. Accessed 21 May 2012.</ref>). Ertz's ''Woman Alive'' is a science fiction novel set after all women other than the titular heroine have perished in a plague.<ref>Judith Merril, "What do you Mean? Science? Fiction?" in Thomas D. Clareson, ''SF: The Other Side of Realism''. Popular Press, 1971. {{ISBN|0879720239}}, (p. 77).</ref><ref>Maria Aline Seabra Ferreira, ''I Am The Other: Literary Negotiations of Human Cloning'' Contributions to the study of science fiction and fantasy, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. {{ISBN|0313320063}} (p.73).</ref>
One of her later works, ''In the Cool of the Day'', was the source of an eponymous movie in 1963, starring Jane Fonda, Peter Finch, and Angela Lansbury.
==Works== {{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf=66828200}} *''Madame Claire'' 1923 (selected as one of the first ten Penguin Books paperbacks in 1935)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cavendish |first=Richard |date=29 June 2010 |title=The First Penguin Paperbacks |url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/first-penguin-paperbacks |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101029200442/http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/first-penguin-paperbacks |archive-date=29 October 2010 |url-status=dead |journal=History Today |volume=60 |issue=7 |access-date=21 July 2021}}</ref> *''Nina'' 1924 *''After Noon'' 1926 *''The Wind of Complication'' (short stories) 1927 (published in the U.K. as ''And Then Face to Face'') *''Now East, Now West'' 1927 *''The Milky Way'' 1929 (under the name, ''The Galaxy'', this book was on the U.S. best seller fiction list for 1929.) *''The Story of Julian'' 1931 (later editions entitled ''Julian Probert'') *''The Proselyte'' 1933 *''Now We Set Out'' 1935 *''Woman Alive, But Now Dead'' 1935<ref name=bleiler>Bibliographic information from:{{cite book | last=Bleiler | first=Everett | author-link=Everett F. Bleiler | title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature | location=Chicago | publisher=Shasta Publishers | year=1948 | page=102}} </ref> also published as ''Woman Alive'' *''No Hearts to Break'' 1937 *''Black, White and Caroline'' 1938 *''Big Frogs and Little Frogs'' (short stories) 1939 *''One Fight More'' 1939 *''Anger in the Sky'' 1943 *''Mary Hellam'' 1947 (published in the U.K. as ''Two Names Upon the Shore'') *''The Prodigal Heart'' 1950 *''The Undefended Gate'' 1953 (published in the U.S. as ''Invitation to Folly'') *''Charmed Circle'' 1956 *''In the Cool of the Day'' 1960 *''Summer's Lease'' 1972 (published in the U.K. as ''Devices and Desires'') *''The Philosopher's Daughter'' 1976
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Wikiquote}} *{{OL author|1777318A|cname=Susan Ertz}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ertz, Susan}} Category:1887 births Category:1985 deaths Category:20th-century British novelists Category:20th-century British women novelists Category:English science fiction writers Category:People from Walton-on-Thames