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Mary Lee Settle

Mary Lee Settle, American novelist, essayist, and memoirist (died 2005)

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Born
July 29, 1918
Died
September 27, 2005
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1918

About Mary Lee Settle

Mary Lee Settle was an American writer. Mary Lee Settle was born on July 29, 1918. Settle wrote a wide variety of works, including non-fiction, but is most famous for a series of novels she called the Beulah Quintet. Settle founded in 1980 what is the United States's most prestigious and most lucrative prize for fiction: the PEN/Faulkner Awards, whose prize in 2005 was $15,000, equivalent to $24,727 in 2025. Behind Settle's action is her experience as a member of the jury of the National Book Award in 1979, after being awarded its main prize the year before for Blood Tie. She won the 1978 National Book Award for her novel Blood Tie.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Mary Lee Settle timeline

  1. She won the 1978 National Book Award for her novel Blood Tie.
  2. Behind Settle's action is her experience as a member of the jury of the National Book Award in 1979, after being awarded its main prize the year before for Blood Tie.
  3. Settle founded in 1980 what is the United States's most prestigious and most lucrative prize for fiction: the PEN/Faulkner Awards, whose prize in 2005 was $15,000, equivalent to $24,727 in 2025.

The world when Mary Lee Settle was born

Mary Lee Settle was born in 1918. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1918

  • Best-selling book"The U.P. Trail" – Zane Grey

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentWorld Series played in September due to WWI
  • Top headlineWorld War I ends — Spanish Flu pandemic begins
  • Technology milestoneFirst regular airmail service
  • World population~1.78B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population102.0M

1918 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Mary Lee Settle's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19182026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population102.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.