Peter John Stephens

Peter John Stephens (31 July 1912 in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire – 11 June 2002) is known for his historical fiction books for teens and three children’s books. He was also a poet, a lyricist for operas and musicals, and a playwright with an off-Broadway play, "A Power of Dreams” in which Anne Meara of Stiller and Meara starred. He was the brother of Richard Waring, the US-based actor, and son of Thomas E. Stephens, whose portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower hangs in the Smithsonian Gallery of Presidents and Evelyn Mary Waring. Retaining his British citizenship, Peter John wrote articles for the British Information Service, Rockefeller Center, New York City.

He was briefly married to the novelist, Henrietta Buckmaster, before Marcia Nichols Holden, a foster daughter of Harry Sidney Nichols, was a poet and editor. Her son from a previous marriage was Anton Holden, Emmy winning sound editor and the author of “Prince Valium”, Stein and Day, 1982. They had two children Dylan Stephens and Gillian Stephens, both musicians. Divorced in 1968 and moving to England, he married Eliane Falconi, an opera singer. They had one child, Dilys Stephens, an artist. He died of prostate cancer in Streatham, London.

His paternal great-great grandfather, Matthew Stephens, was a successful Welsh smuggler near Aberthaw in the Vale of Glamorgan.