Born: May 20, 1914
Died: May 14, 1978
Ohio connection: Birth
Cincinnati
Mary Margaret Deasy was born in 1914 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of William Paul and Clara (Woelfel) Deasy. She received a Mus.B. from the University of Cincinnati in 1935. She was a concert pianist who gave up music as a vocation for a career in writing. Her first novel, The Hour of Spring, was published in 1948. Her other novels were Cannon Hill, Ella Ganning, Devil’s Bridge, The Corioli Affair, The Boy Who Made Good, O’Shaughnessy’s Day, and The Celebration. Her books were published in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, and Spain, as well as in the United States. Deasy also wrote numerous short stories, some of which appeared in O. Henry Memorial Prize Award Stories, Best American Short Stories, and in a variety of periodicals, including New Yorker, Harper’s, and Mademoiselle. Mary Margaret Deasy died May 14, 1978 in Cincinnati.
A collection of Deasy’s papers including notebooks, manuscripts, correspondence, and photographs are held at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University which also mentions “Deasy’s ‘Clare Darcy’ Regency novels”
Under the pseudonym Clare Darcy, Deasy wrote Regency Romance novels which have been translated into German, Finnish, and Italian. One source states that “Darcy’s reviewers have designated her Georgette Heyer’s successor,” referencing the well-known romance novelist.