Ella Leffland Obit

Ella Leffland Obituary

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Ella J. Leffland

11/25/1931 - 09/18/2024

Ella J. Leffland (1931-2024), acclaimed San Francisco novelist and short story writer, died Sept 18th 2024, in San Leandro, CA. Ella was born and raised in Martinez, CA. Her childhood during the years of WWII became the basis of her third novel Rumors of Peace. She lived in San Francisco most of her adult life, enjoying the company of her many friends and fellow writers.

After graduating from Alhambra High School in Martinez, Ella attended San Jose State College, receiving a BA in Fine Arts in 1953. A variety of Jobs followed, including a stint with a progressive SF newspaper. During the 1950's she began in earnest to submit her short stories to major American magazines and journals. Her submissions appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine and various other publications. Her published books are Mrs. Munck (1970), Love Out of Season (1974), Rumors of Peace (1979), Last Courtesies (1980), The Knight, Death and the Devil (1990), and Breath and Shadows (1999). A film was made of her first novel, directed by and starring Diane Ladd. Ella also wrote book reviews for the New York Times Book Review.

Over the years Ella received many awards and honors, among them, inclusion in the Chronicle West Best 100 Fiction List, two California Book Awards-Commonwealth Club medals (1974 and 1990). The O'Henry Award first place for her short story 'Last Courtesies' (1977), and the Gena Berriault Award (2014).

Predeceased family: parents Sven and Emma Leffland, brother Knut William Leffland and sister Agnes See. Surviving family: cousins Carolyn D'Elia and Barbara Beland, nephews David See and Erik Leffland, and niece Karn Hassler and their families.

Highly regarded by other writers, her novels demonstrate stunning mastery of the techniques of realistic fiction; but Leffland uses her facility to illuminate characters whose imaginative lives are rich and often strange. The settings of most of her works are in northern California, where she grew up; she is perhaps best known for her semi-autobiographical novel Rumors of Peace (1979; reprinted as a "rediscovered classic" in 2011) about a girl coming of age during World War II. The fascination with personal and social evil that Leffland explores in Rumors of Peace emerges powerfully in her ambitious historical novel based on the life of Hermann Göring, Knight, Death and the Devil, published in 1990.

Leffland was born and raised in Martinez, California. She attended San Jose State University. Her story "Last Courtesies", published in Harper's Magazine, won an O. Henry Award First Prize in 1977. She has written five novels and a collection of short stories, including Mrs. Munck (1970), a gothic tale of a woman's vengeance on the man who abandoned her decades before, made into a film adapted, directed, and starring Diane Ladd. She has also written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review.