Vera Caspary - Biography

Biography

Caspary was born prematurely in Chicago – her mother, Julia (née Cohen), already over forty with three other nearly-grown children, had hidden her condition. Her father, Paul. was a buyer for a department store; he and her mother were both second generation German and Russian Jewish immigrants. Being such a surprise to her family, Caspary was thoroughly spoiled as a child.

After her graduation from high school in 1917, her father enrolled her in a six month course in a business college, and by January 1918, Caspary found herself working as a stenographer. Caspary went through a string of menial office jobs, looking for one where she could write instead of taking dictation from people with bad grammar. While working at an advertising agency composing copy, she invented the fictitious "Sergei Marinoff School of Classic Dancing", a mail order dance course. Caspary wrote all the materials for this and other correspondence courses she had little knowledge of, including one that taught screenwriting. She was also producing articles for publications such as Finger Print Magazine, and the New York -based Dance Lovers Magazine. By 1922, she had turned down a raise from $50 to $75 to write from home and work on her first novel.