Stella Wynne Herron was an American writer and suffragist whose work appeared in a variety of magazines, including Collier's, Sunset, and Weird Tales. She is most known for her 1916 short story "Shoes", which pioneering film directorLois Weber adapted into a film of the same name. The film is now considered a feminist classic in early cinema history.
Early life and education
Estella "Stella" Frances Wynne was born on April 5, 1885, though some sources report the year as 1886. She grew up in San Francisco as the daughter of Irish immigrants. For college, she attended Stanford University and graduated in 1906. It was in school that she began her writing career. She worked as an associate editor for the university's journal 'The Stanford Sequoia', and her play, The Original Miss Tewksberry, was selected to be the senior farce for the 1906 school year. She also was an early member of the senior women's society "Cap and Gown", foreshadowing her later activism.
Writing career
As detailed in The Writer, Herron's first piece to be accepted for publication was her short story "The Still of Ballywan." She had written it originally as a sophomore for a school assignment, and she had "written hastily one night at the close of the term" McClure's magazine went on to publish it in 1906. Over the following sixty years, Herron would go on to write many short stories, several plays, a serialized novel, and an illustrated book of protest poetry. Her work was sometimes republished in collected short story volumes. For example, 'The Americanizing of André François', was republished in 'Among the Humorists and After Dinner Speakers, Part Two'. Two of her short stories, "Shoes" and "The Double Room Mystery", were also made into silent films, and filmmaker Thomas H. Ince bought the rights to her short story "An Adventurous Day" in 1920, though it never went into production. Ince paid Herron $500, a substantial figure at the time. She was known for her prize-winning stories in various magazines, including "An Adventurous Day", and one trade journal even reported that, "Her work received the personal compliments of the late Theodore Roosevelt."
Personal life
She married William F. Herron, a newspaper writer, on September 18, 1907 in Salinas. Eight years later, they had their only child, John Wynne Herron. Herron and her husband were divorced by 1920. From the mid-30s to the early forties, she lived in New York City as a poet, though she eventually returned to San Francisco. Her activism included campaigning for women's suffrage in California in the 1910s, and one point she even worked as the Chairman for the College Equal Suffrage League. Her writing and activism connected her to many influential figures including journalist Alma Reed, who considered Herron a "lifelong friend", and painter José Clemente Orozco. Herron died on March 1, 1966, and she was buried in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park.
