Grace Steele Woodward

{{Infobox writer

| name = Grace Steele Woodward

| image =

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1899|9|14}}

| birth_place = Joplin, Missouri, U.S.A.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1987|12|18|1899|9|14}}

| death_place = Oklahoma?, U.S.A.

| occupation = author and playwright

| nationality = French

| alma_mater = University of Missouri
University of Oklahoma
Teachers College at Columbia University

| period =

| genre = non-fiction history

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| website =

| spouse = Guy Woodward

}}

Grace Steele Woodward (14 September 1899 – 18 December 1987) was an American writer and historian known for non-fiction books.

Biography

= Early life and education =

Grace Steele was born on September 14, 1899, in Joplin, Missouri, U.S.{{Cite book |last1=Scanlon |first1=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XJSdT_4NWTMC&pg=PA244 |title=American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary |last2=Cosner |first2=Shaaron |date=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-29664-2 |language=en}} Her family moved to Webb City, Missouri, U.S.A., where she graduated from Webb City High School in 1917.{{Cite web |last=Caldwell |first=Bill |date=2023-02-24 |title=Amateur historian, Grace Woodward, grew up in Webb City |url=https://www.joplinglobe.com/news/bill-caldwell-amateur-historian-grace-woodward-grew-up-in-webb-city/article_4818cb80-b2d9-11ed-82a0-3bc50f747c95.html |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=Joplin Globe |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Hall of Fame / 2008 |url=https://www.wcr7.org/Page/1244 |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=Webb City School District |language=en}}

Woodward attended the University of Missouri, the University of Oklahoma, and Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, U.S.A. {{Cite web |title=Woodward, Grace Steele {{!}} 1968 |url=https://oklahomahof.com/member-archives/w/woodward-grace-steele-1968 |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=Oklahoma Hall of Fame |language=en}}

= Career =

Grace worked as a professional storyteller.{{Cite news |date=1987-12-19 |title=Obituary for Grace Steele Woodward |pages=33 |work=Tulsa World |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tulsa-world-obituary-for-grace-steele-wo/125549086/ |access-date=2023-05-30}}

Grace Steele married Guy Hendon Woodward, an attorney, in 1920; they started a family before she began her writing career with a course at the University of Tulsa. Grace's stories appeared in Parents, Forecast, and Holland's Magazine. Sometimes she wrote under the pseudonym Marian Doane to protect the privacy of her children.

Mrs. Woodward's first book, The Man Who Conquered Pain (1962) was about William T.G. Morton, the dentist who promoted the use of ether. Her second book, The Cherokees (1963) was a history of the Cherokee tribe and it received widespread acclaim. Her third book, published in 1969, was a biography of Pocahontas. It won first prize from the Oklahoma State Writers. Her fourth book, The Secrets of Sherwood Forest, was co-authored with her husband, Guy Woodward, and published in 1973; it covered the drilling of oil in Sherwood Forest during World War II.

= Personal life, death, and legacy =

Mrs. Woodward was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1968. She was a member of .

Grace Steele Woodward was widowed when her husband of 52 years, Guy Woodward, died in 1979. Grace passed 8 years later on December 18, 1987.

Works

[https://books.google.com/books?id=-WZ2tQEACAAJ The Man Who Conquered Pain: A Biography of William Thomas Green Morton]. Beacon Press, 1962.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=r4mKohpSJ2kC&q=Grace+Steele+Woodward The Cherokees]. University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.{{Cite news |date=1967-04-30 |title=A Remarkable Indian Nation's Story |pages=75 |work=Daily Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-press-a-remarkable-indian-nations/125548961/ |access-date=2023-05-30}}
[https://books.google.com/books?id=IVLPVUnPESIC&q=Grace+Steele+Woodward Pocahontas]. University of Oklahoma Press, 1969.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=NO23GwAACAAJ The Secrets of Sherwood Forest: Oil Production in England During World War II]. With Guy H. Woodward. University of Oklahoma Press, 1973.{{Cite news |date=1974-01-13 |title=The Best-Kept Secret |pages=107 |work=Tulsa World |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tulsa-world-the-best-kept-secret/125549003/ |access-date=2023-05-30}}