working from an apartment which overlooked the Hudson River. Of this period in her life, Malvern was quoted as saying: <blockquote>Advertising is a very good business. I liked it immensely and stuck with it for about twelve years. But after work, being very stubborn in this matter, I continued to write. And I wrote. And I wrote. Finally—oh, after I'd torn up any number of manuscripts—I sold a book… And somehow or other I began to feel encouraged. In fact, after I'd sold three novels, I felt so brave I gave up my advertising job. We sold the lamps and the easy chairs and most of the books, and came blithely to New York.</blockquote> Novels for young adults (1934–1962) Having learned the discipline of writing from her 12 years as an advertising writer and copy editor, Malvern produced several successful novels for young adults in the first years following her return to New York. In 1943, Gladys Malvern penned Curtain Going Up, a widely read biography of 20th-century actress and legend, Katharine Cornell. The same year, Malvern won the Julia Ellsworth Ford Foundation Award for the historical novel, Valiant Minstrel: The Story of Sir Henry Lauder. Gladys Malvern continued writing biographies of other performers, including Joseph Jefferson, Anna Pavlova and Rossini. She also occasionally wrote under the pseudonyms Vahrah von Klopp and Sabra Lee Corbin. Malvern corresponded with actress Helen Hayes in 1944 about a potential biographical story for American Girl magazine, but never published her story. It is now available as a 12-page part of the Malvern Papers, currently held at the New York Public Library in the "Performing Arts Research Collection". In 1958, Malvern's Behold Your Queen!, a story of the Biblical character of Esther, was a main selection of the Junior Literary Guild. Malvern wrote several other Biblical stories, including The Foreigner - A Story of Ruth, According to Thomas, Tamar and Saul's Daughter. Gladys Malvern never returned to the stage, but she would go on to write more than 40 successful historical novels, including Patriot's Daughter - The Story of Anastasia Lafayette and Dear Wife - A Story of the American Revolution, many of them illustrated by her sister Corinne, who died in 1956. Gladys moved to Weston, Connecticut, where she continued to write until her own death in November 1962. Posthumous editions Several novels were published posthumously by Vanguard Press in 1971, including The Six