The Grotto by Grace Zaring Stone

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951

The dust jacket declares Ms. Stone "...the first novelist who has dared to write frankly about a tragic problem--the struggle of a mother to save her son from becoming a homosexual."

Written with a decidedly Freudian bent, this is the story of a widow, Celia Thorne and her teenage son Evan. While traveling in Italy they become stranded due to striking ship staff. When she is offered the chance to stay with an old friend, Wilfred Foliot at a villa on the coast of Italy, she happily accepts. While waiting for the strike to be resolved she is forced to come to terms with Evan growing up and his possible homosexuality.

Grace Zaring Stone is most well known for her 1939 novel Escape. She used the pseudonym Ethel Vance to avoid jeopardizing her daughter who was living in occupied Europe during World War II.

Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (IV); Garde (Primary, **); Mattachine Review (IV); Young (3663, *)