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"I think I'm still a member of the Authors' League," novelist Shirley
Seifert once mused, " but following a disagreement I'm not sure."
Seifert's decidedly definite opinions, "the embarrassment of her relations,"
mark the characters of many of her literary creations as well. Shirley Seifert
knew who she was and what she was about, and she imbued her American types with the
same fearless fortitude.
Born in 1888 in St. Peters, Missouri, Seifert was the daughter of railroad engineer
Richard Seifert, who had emigrated from Germany alone at the age of 17, and Anna Sanford,
who traced her family back to 1634 Massachusetts. Seifert finished high school in
St. Louis and credited "the wonderful world of books," as well as several
favorite teachers, with inspiring her interest in writing. At Washington University
she majored in classical and modern languages and won $20 in a National Oats contest with
an advertising jingle she tossed off while ironing a party dress.
After teaching English, Latin, and history "and not liking it too well,"
Seifert received encouragement to write professionally from two professors whose courses
in journalism she attended. First selling an article to Population Science
Monthly for $3, she later earned $100 from the American magazine in 1919
for her short story "The Girl Who Was Too Good Looking." Seifert found
herself launched on a literary career that would center on historical fiction, much of
it set in the American Midwest. She presented American history in terms of the real
people, eminent and ordinary, who lived through times of national excitement or crisis.
Seifert scoured old records, diaries, letters, and newspapers for the raw material of her
stories, and was rewarded with a place in the American literature of the mid-twentieth
century that, while not exalted, guaranteed her a good livelihood, numbers of devoted
readers, and a fair measure of critical acclaim. Seifert averaged about one book
every two years, and one of her earliest novels, The Wayfarer, was nominated for
the Pulitzer Prize.
In her personal life Seifert could "mix a batch of concrete, a pan of biscuits, or
the ingredients of an historical novel with equal skill." She enjoyed traveling,
music, gardening, sewing, and "helping with any building job in progress" at the
Kirkwood house she shared with her mother and sister Adele. Twice named a St. Louis
Woman of Distinction, Seifert proclaimed herself "a devoted and loyal citizen of that
city, recognizing all its faults and liking even those if you press me too hard."
She summed up her vision of the future of America by saying, "I am no defeatist.
When I am doing research for a novel, I see how America will work out of its present
crisis." Seifert died in 1971.
Adele Seifert and Elizabeth Seifert Gasparotti, Shirley's sisters, also wrote. Adele
produced several mystery novels and a few works in collaboration with Shirley. Elizabeth
specialized in stories about doctors, stimulated by her own early desire to study medicine,
her work in a hospital, and the demands of nursing a paralyzed husband and caring for four
children. Her first book, Young Dr. Galahad, took the Redbook prize of
$10,000 for a first novel in 1938. Elizabeth was even more prolific than her sister
Shirley: by 1951 she had published 24 books, about three times as many as Shirley.
Elizabeth died in 1983, Adele in 1986.
Shirley Seifert and her sisters stand as lesser-known but worthy members of the St. Louis
literary community. Their works, Shirley's well-crafted celebrations of the American
character in particular, well repay acquaintance with them.
Christine F. Harper
July 2000
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