Kay Nolte Smith was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 writer. She was for a time friendly with the philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

, who was her leading literary and philosophical influence.

Smith was born in Eveleth, Minnesota

Eveleth, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,865 people, 1,717 households, and 971 families residing in the city. The population density was 611.0 people per square mile . There were 1,965 housing units at an average density of 310.6 per square mile...

 and grew up in Baraboo, Wisconsin

Baraboo, Wisconsin

Baraboo is the largest city in, and the county seat of Sauk County, Wisconsin, USA. It is situated on the Baraboo River. Its 2010 population was 12,048 according to the US Census Bureau...

. Smith launched her literary career after her separation from the Ayn Rand circle. Her first novel was the mystery

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

 story The Watcher. Smith's Catching Fire is set in the world of the New York theater, with an anti-trade union political stance. Mindspell centres on the conflict between science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 versus religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, with Nolte Smith stating this fiction was written "to challenge strongly the belief in the occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

". Her novel Elegy for a Soprano is a roman a clef

Roman à clef

Roman à clef or roman à clé , French for "novel with a key", is a phrase used to describe a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction...

inspired by Rand, Nathaniel Branden

Nathaniel Branden

Nathaniel Branden, né Nathan Blumenthal , is a psychotherapist and writer best known today for his work in the psychology of self-esteem from a humanistic perspective...

, and the circle around them. Elegy for a Soprano also portrays the life of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

.
Two of her novels - Elegy for a Soprano and A Tale of the Wind - were nominated for Prometheus Award

Prometheus Award

The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...

s in 1986 and 1992, respectively.

She published seven novels before her death from cancer at age 61.

Novels

• The Watcher (1981) - Won the Edgar
  Edgar Award
  The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
  
   for Best First [mystery] Novel by an American Author
• Catching Fire (1982)
• Mindspell (1984)
• Elegy for a Soprano (1985) - nominated for 1986 Prometheus Award in Best Novel category
• Country of the Heart (1987)
• A Tale of the Wind
  A Tale of the Wind
  A Tale of the Wind is a 1988 French film directed by Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan. It is also known as A Wind Story. It stars Ivens as he travels in China and tries to capture winds on film, while he reflects on his life and career. The film blends real and fictional elements; it ranges from...
  
  (1991) - nominated for 1992 Prometheus Award in Best Novel category
• Venetian Song (1994)

Translations

Smith translated the play Chantecler

Chantecler

Chantecler can refer to:*Chantecler, the rooster in the epic tale of Reynard*Chantecler, a breed of chicken*Chantecler , a play by Edmond Rostand, whose characters are barnyard animals, and whose eponymous protagonist is a rooster...

: A Play in Four Acts by Edmond Rostand

Edmond Rostand

Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century...

in 1987 into English from the French original.

External links

• A Tribute to Kay Nolte Smith by Michelle Fram Cohen
• Brief bio at the Freedom from Religion Foundation