Esther McCoy

Esther McCoy (November 18, 1904 in Horatio, Arkansas – December 30, 1989) was an American author and architectural historian who was instrumental in bringing the modern architecture of California to the attention of the world.

Born in Horatio, Arkansas, Esther McCoy was raised in Kansas. She attended the Central College for Women, a preparatory school in Lexington, Missouri, prior to a college career which took her from Baker University, to the University of Arkansas, then to Washington University, and finally the University of Michigan. She left the University of Michigan in 1925, and by 1926 was living in New York City and embarking on a writing career.

In 1932 McCoy was diagnosed with pneumonia and headed West for Los Angeles to recover. She purchased in a bungalow in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica in the late 1930s, where she lived for the remainder of her life, although she traveled widely. During World War II, McCoy worked as a draftsman for R.M. Schindler after being discouraged from applying to USC's architecture school due to her age and sex. After a long and varied writing and teaching career, she died in December 1989.

In 1929, McCoy began to publish fiction, her work appearing in noted magazines such as The New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar, as well as in University quarterlies. Her short story "The Cape" was featured in The Best American Short Stories of 1950. In 1924, McCoy had met author Theodore Dreiser, and for more than a decade she conducted research for him. She wrote novels, short stories and screenplays during her years in New York and after moving to Los Angeles. She continued to write fiction into the 1960s, though her first significant article on architecture had been published in 1945. McCoy and a friend, Allen Read, co-authored a series of detective novels under the pseudonym "Allan McRoyd."

...
Wikipedia