Anita Hale Shreve (October 7, 1946 – March 29, 2018) was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting (published 1975), was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976. Early years and education Born in Boston, the eldest of three daughters, Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts. She was a member of the Dedham High School class of 1964. Her father, Richard Harold Shreve, was an airline pilot for Delta Air Lines and later a trompe l'oeil painter, while her mother, Bibiana Kennedy, was a homemaker. Shreve graduated from Tufts University and was a member of Chi Omega. Personal life She married Jack Christensen, her first husband, while he finished his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. She met her second husband, Clay Wescott, at Reading Memorial High School, where they were teachers. Shreve and Wescott were living in Hingham, Massachusetts, and taking part in a Wescott family project to build Alcyone, a 41-foot sailboat, which was launched in January 1973. Some of Shreve's voyages with Wescott in Alcyone became fictionalized in her later writing. Wescott and Shreve married in 1975, and went to Kenya together, where Wescott got a job with the Harvard Institute for International Development while finishing his PhD. In 1978, Wescott and Shreve split up and returned to the USA. In 1980, she married again, this time to John Clemans, a photographer she met at Viva Magazine, in Nairobi, and with whom she had two children, Christopher and Katherine. She was married for a fourth time, in 1999, to John Osborn, an insurance broker, and remained with him until her death. Career Shreve taught at Reading Memorial High School before shifting to Hingham High School. Shreve wanted to become a writer, but it wasn't easy. Wescott and Shreve had a wall of their apartment covered with all the rejection notices she received. While in Kenya, Shreve worked as Deputy Editor for Viva Magazine, an award-winning Kenyan publication under the direction of Salim Lone. Some of Shreve's Kenyan adventures also ended up in her books. One book, A Change in Altitude, was a fictional account about a climb to the top of Mount Kenya that Wescott and Shreve did with their friends Mary and Richard Oates. In the real story, they were near the top of the mountain, and Mary slipped on the ice, but the guide