Cynthia Propper Seton

Cynthia Propper Seton (October 11, 1926 – October 23, 1982) was an American writer and feminist. Following a 12-year career as a columnist for The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, she began writing essays and fiction, producing five novels and three essay collections. She graduated from the Fieldston School in New York City and earned her bachelor's degree in 1948 from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Career After marriage, she and her physician husband settled in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1956 she began writing a regular column for The Berkshire Eagle while living in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, continuing this endeavor for the next 12 years. The Washington Post picked up the column from 1959 to 1960. Her third novel, A Fine Romance, was a finalist for the 1977 National Book Award for Fiction. Seton did not use feminist rhetoric, but instead adopted "a graceful and ironic style laced with compassion for women struggling to find expression and for the men in their lives". She noted that "I've always felt an affectionate respect for what a woman can do. If she does it well, it's not demeaning". Her youngest child, Nora, wrote about her mother's influence and her cooking style in The Kitchen Congregation (2000).

Seton was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and leukemia in the early 1970s. She died of acute leukemia on October 23, 1982, at her home in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Cynthia Propper Seton Papers are housed in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in Northampton.

Works