The elegant, mannered writing of Anya Seton has captivated readers for nearly 70 years. Best known for her novel Green Darkness, Seton wrote on a variety of time periods and imbuing each of her novels with memorable characters and well-researched locations. Though she preferred to call her works "biographical novels," she is regularly cited among romance readers and historical romance novelists as being the best of the breed.

Anya Seton (from the backcover of Green Darkness); a page from My Theodosia; Anya Seton's grave in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.

She was born Ann Seton, daughter of Boy Scout of America founder and naturalist writer Ernest Thompson Seton and travel writer Grace Gallatin, in New York City in 1904. Family wealth allowed her and her parents extensive travel, a luxury that informed many of her novels. Married and divorced twice, Seton's intense interest in philosophy and religion also found its way into many of her writings. Her meticulous eye for detail and language gave each book its own identity, though occasionally the results were less than satisfactory. She died in 1990 after years of ill health.

Because of her work's association with romance readers and writers, Seton rarely received the literary respect she was due. Nonetheless, Anya Seton's books remain well-loved decades after they were written, selling in bookstores and auction sites. Seton's themes are enduring: strong, courageous female protagonists whose hearts lead them astray or have societal demands placed on them before coming into their own. She had a remarkable ability to bring famous and not-so-famous characters to life in the background and forefront of her stories.  She also authored a guide to Marblehead, Massachusetts, the setting for The Hearth and the Eagle, and a biography of Washington Irving.  Her most popular titles were recently reissued by Chicago Review Press (Katherine, Green Darkness, Dragonwyck, Avalon) and also in Canada.

Anya Seton's fiction titles are listed below with notes about the book. The publication dates listed are not confirmed but as best as I can ascertain them.

• My Theodosia 1941     Seton's first novel and bestseller is the story of Aaron Burr's daughter Theodosia, and the conflict of her love for one man and committment to another amid her tragic, mysterious end. An excellent, wonderfully researched read.
  
• Dragonwyck 1944      Made into a popular film of its day starring Vincent Price and Gene Tierney, Dragonwyck is an intriguing  tale of wealth, greed and mystery in upstate New York in the 1800s. Young Miranda Wells is drawn into the web of her dashing cousin-turned-husband Nicholas Van Rijn in a story well-written but somewhat predictable in its resolution.
  
• The Turquoise 1946      The first (and better) of Seton's two novels set in 19th century Southwest, The Turquoise is an interesting work though not as satisfying as her other books. In it, Santa Fe (Fey) Cameron, the orphaned daughter of a wealthy Mexican girl and a Scottish man, is driven to leave her home and head east, where her ambition leads to success, tragedy, and return to her native home.
  
• The Hearth and the Eagle 1948     Seton returned to her beloved East Coast for this tale 1700s Marblehead, Massachusetts. The tale of Hesper Honeywood, a young woman as drawn to the sea as she is to the three men who shape her life. Another beautifully researched novel.
  
• Foxfire 1950      Seton's second novel set in Southwest about an heiress who forgoes her life of luxury to marry a half-breed Indian. I've tried to read it but it didn't hold my interest to finish it, the only book of hers I didn't finish. This was also made into a film.
  
• Katherine 1954    Anya Seton truly hit her writing stride with this gorgeous, absorbing tale of Katherine de Roet, the 14th-century French-born lass who wed a Saxon knight then the Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt. That Katherine became sister-in-law to Geoffrey Chaucer and bred the Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts seems like the stuff of fiction, but Seton breathes life into this little-documented historical character. This was the lengthiest of Seton's novels at the time, the first set outside America, and well worth the read.
  
• The Mistletoe and the Sword 1956     Seton dipped into her English heritage and traveled overseas to document this compact but lovingly crafted young people's novel of Roman Britain in the time of Boadicea, warrior queen of the Britons. In it, Regan, the foster child of Boadicea and a Druid, falls for the Roman soldier Quintus, a love forbidden by their warring cultures but bound by their journeys through Essex, Bath, and to Stonehenge.
  
• The Winthrop Woman 1958     Both Puritan England and Colonial America are highlighted in this tale of Elizabeth Winthrop, a 17th-century woman determined to drive her own destiny between three men during a time of religious and political oppression. A short but gratifying read, once again rife with the sort of details - including historical figures - Seton loved to use.
  
• Devil Water 1962     Jacobite Scotland and Colonial America are the dual settings for this utterly romantic historical that brings together the beautiful young Jenny Radcliffe, raised with the finer things her father's family offered, with an older man from her mother's lower class village. Seton's historical underpinnings of the 18th-century Jacobite Rebellion are enthralling. Like Katherine, Devil Water is a triumphant read and completely draws the reader in.
  
• Avalon 1965     Perhaps the least effective of Seton's novels, yet a fascinating tale, Avalon takes place in Anglo-Saxon England at the end of the Dark Ages when Vikings still plundered the British shores. Seton's attempt to bounce between the lustful-turned-religious Rumon and the pagan Merewyn just doesn't quite work and has almost nothing to do with King Arthur, despite the evocative title. Still, there's much to love in this story of love gone awry.
  
• Green Darkness 1972     The novel most often cited by romance readers and writers as their favorite, Green Darkness was one of Seton's last but greatest stories. Its weaving of reincarnation and the need to bring closure to a centuries-old tragedy in modern times has riveted readers for decades. Seton's deft writing and the fun of connecting the past characters with their present-day counterparts amid the tumultuous events of 16th century England is as much of its tragic allure as the doomed romance between the young Celia de Bohun and a priest, Brother Stephen.
  
• Smouldering Fires 1975     The other less-effective Anya Seton novel was also her last. Some of its lack of spark may be due to its being written for young people but the basic premise of the past visiting itself on the present so beautifully created in Green Darkness is shapeless and unsatisfying in this abbreviated novel that comes across like Green Darkness Lite.

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