Elsie Lee Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Elsie Lee
Elsie Lee (nee Williams) was born January 24, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York to Samuel Byron Williams Jr and Helen (Bogert). Samuel was a telephone engineer born in Ohio that worked for Western Electric in New York City while Helen was a housewife. David G. Williams, her brother, was born when Elsie was 13 years old.

She started cooking when she was 8 years old, attended the Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania from 1928 until 1932, and went to the Pratt Institute from 1932 to 1933.

On December 27, 1941, she married Morton Lee. Elsie was a member of the Authors Guild of Authors League of America, the Society of Friends (Quakers), and Mensa. Her interests included music, bridge, cats, 2-pack solitaire games, cooking, jigsaw puzzles, and word games.

Elsie worked as a librarian for Price, Waterhouse & Company (1937-1942); as an office manager for Reeves Laboratories (1942-1945); a librarian for the Gulf Oil Company (1947-1951); as an executive secretary for Andrews, Clark & Buckley (1951-1953).

From 1945 until her death, she was a writer. She sold her first stories to the Ladies Home Journal. Elsie described that her stories were like fairy tales for grownups, mostly women. She was better at characterizations than plots, and best with cats that are unanimously adored by her readers. She would never compromise on the quality of grammar and vocabulary in her books. It’s a writer’s responsibility to teach subtly through their entertainment.

In her “Book of Simple Gourmet Cookery” that she lived in Washington for six years and in Hollywood for three years.

She wrote under the pen names Lee Sheridan, Elsie Cromwell, and Jane Gordon.

Elsie died at the age of 75 on February 8, 1987 while she was living in New York City.

“Silence is Golden” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1971. Silence Eddington (age 19) came to be a companion to the gorgeous young future heiress of Hazelhurst Grange, she entered into this disturbing and dazzling new world. The orphanage that she grew up in had left her unprepared for the dreamlike luxury of such a wonderful manor, as well as for its nightmarish danger.

What spell did the place cast over any and all that lived here? The girl that was so mysteriously ailing, strangely possessed, the servants whose humble manners were actually masks for hate. The master himself, having been scarred by his own secret past, ruled by his fearful passions, with the power to make her tremble with his gaze and melt from his touch.

Silence would soon learn for the first time what love really was, and what evil it was capable of.

“Wingarden” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1971. Chloe Wingate was certain that she’d never seen the great mansion of Wingarden before, however when she arrived to claim it as her legacy, she felt as though she’d known it since the day she was born. Chloe had never before met a man like cynical and handsome Innis Rolland before, but from the instant that his mocking eyes first met hers, she felt his almost frightening power over her.

When she stepped foot inside of Wingarden, she was entering into a whole other world, another time, where evil rose up out of the depths of her past, and while the blood dark tidal wave of passion swept her away toward her fearful fate.

“The Wicked Guardian” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1973. The Rogue and The Beauty. Nothing at all seemed more unpleasant to dark haired and lovely Miss Araminta Surtaine than a coach journey with her unctuous guardian, Lord Robert Eddystone. But she still had no choice but to accompany him.

Her 18th birthday, which typically would entitle her to the extraordinary Surtaine fortune, and freedom, was still two whole weeks away. However when Araminta realized that Lord Robert planned on forcing her into marrying his repugnant son, she resolved to risk death in order to avoid such a fate.

And so it was that she flung herself out of his speeding carriage and into darkness and woke up in a camp of gypsies, her name changed, her memory wiped and her future just as exciting and mysterious as the roguishly handsome stranger whose real identity was just as dangerous to reveal as Araminta’s was.

“Second Season” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1974. Miss Charlotte Stanwood was the despair of her whole family. She’d reached the ripe age of 18 without a man, and if her disastrous first season in London was any indication, she was doomed to just be a spinster.

What could you possibly do with a girl that would not learn to chatter sweetly, or play the harp, or neatly sew? Instead, she rode a horse as well as any man did, read the most boring of books, and she even knew how to speak German.

All of society was stunned when the handsome, dashing, immensely wealthy Duke of Imbrie asked for her hand, and stunned when she turned him down. However that was only the first of so many surprises Miss Charlotte Stanwood had in store.

“An Eligible Connection” is a stand alone novel that was released in 1974. The Dashing Rake and The Red Haired Rebel. She never had the vapors and she never played the coquette like her ravishing sister Almina, who was “The Dark Incomparable” of London’s haut ton. Fanny Cherill’s flame colored hair was just a hopeless liability, her cheeky wit and daring thoroughly unladylike.

However it all changed the night that the handsome Lord Waterbury stole into her boudoir in order to capture her heart, and her reputation. All of a sudden she was compromised by this notorious rake. She was just an embarrassment, an obstacle to Almina’s brilliant marital prospects, a hindrance to be rid of immediately, even if this meant marrying her off to some man that she did not love. So Fanny decided to show them that she was indeed a lady. A lady that they would never forget.