Patricia Welles, informally Patti Welles, is an American novelist, occasional poet and playwright, and former actress, best known for her first novel, Babyhip (1967). She began life as Patricia L. Kanterman, and the name Welles was at first a stage and pen name, but by about 1968 she had adopted it for all purposes.

Early life Welles was born in Canton, Stark County, Ohio, one of the daughters of Nathan C. Kanterman and his wife Ruth Thal Lawner, daughter of Marks Lawner, of Dayton, Ohio. They were married there in 1921, in a Jewish wedding reported at length in the ‘Society’ column of The Dayton Herald.”Society: Lawner—Kanterman”, The Dayton Herald, January 21, 1921: “The marriage of Miss Ruth Thal Lawner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Marks Lawner of Harvard boulevard, to Nat C. Kanterman of Oil City, Pa., took place at six o’clock Tuesday evening in the American dining room of the Hotel Gibbons. Miss Claudia Lindman’s orchestra furnished the music, and Rabbi Samuel Mayerberg pronounced the words of the service. Seventy-five guests were present at the dinner which followed...” The young Welles was educated at schools in Detroit, Highland Park Community High School, and Radcliffe College. After that, she took a job in television production and studied acting in a Carnegie Hall group with Lee and Paula Strasberg.ADVANCES FLOWER FOR TALE OF HIPPIE; $100,000 Assured Author of 'Babyhip,' First Novel, The New York Times, September 26, 1967 Her parents were later of Royal Oak, Michigan.

Early career The dust-cover of The Switch (1971) says that Welles had worked “in television, advertising, and movies, as a model, an actress, and a waitress”. While working on stage, Welles appeared in an off-Broadway revival of Sartre's No Exit. She said in 1967 that she gave up acting as she found it hard "to sell yourself for each new part." She went on to take writing jobs.

Novelist A writer,Sig Altman, The Comic Image of the Jew: Explorations of a Pop Culture Phenomenon (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1971), p. 115 Welles had a huge success with her first novel, Babyhip, published by E. P. Dutton in September 1967, described by The New York Times as “observations of hippie-style extremists of the high school generation”. This brought her an “unexpected bonanza” even before publication, with Dutton agreeing an advance for the sale of 13,000 copies, and the New American Library paying $150,000 () as an advance against royalties for the paperback rights. Palladian Productions contracted for the movie rights at $100,000 and had to pay $25,000 of that before publication of the book.

Further novels followed, including in 1969 a novelization of the screenplay of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker.Best Sellers, Vol. 28 (University of Scranton, 1969), p. 379 Leo on the Ascendant (1969) was advertised as “A funny, sexy novel of London life by the author of Babyhip – the novel which seduced more people than it outraged”.T L S, the Times Literary Supplement (Times Newspapers Limited, 1969), p. 201

Between May and June 1972, Welles’s comedy “The Lottery” was performed for four weeks at the Hampstead Theatre Club, directed by Ronald Hayman, with Lisa Daniely and Philip Lowrie in the cast.”New comedy at Hampstead”, The Stage, Thursday 4 May 1972, p. 1

In 1987 her poem ‘Elephants are slow to mate’ was published in The Literary Review.The Literary Review, Issues 105-115 (Sunlight Press, 1987), p. 64.

Personal life In 1951, Welles left her high school to marry the poet Philip Levine, but the marriage broke up in 1953.Christopher Buckley, ed., On the poetry of Philip Levine: stranger to nothing (University of Michigan Press, 1991, ), pp. 2, 3 Later, she was “much married”.Allen J. Hubin, Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography 1749-2000, Addenda, CrimeFictionIV.com, accessed May 23, 2026 After a marriage to Leon Friedman which ended in 1966, she settled in London.

In 1952, Welles’s identical twin sister Barbara married Henry Murray LeBost (1929–2008), a recent graduate in pre-medicine who later became a physician. Her sister graduated A.B. in 1955 and A.M. in 1956 at the University of Michigan, divorced, and as Barbara LeBost became an instructor in English and foreign languages at the Teachers College of Columbia University and a lecturer in education at Queens College, Flushing. She was also a promising poet.”Barbara A. LeBost”, in Announcement of Teachers College, Columbia University (Columbia University, 1964), p. xxxi”Biographical Note”, in Mind's Country: and Other Poems (London: Villiers Publications, 1968) In October 1966, Barbara LeBost suffered serious injuries in an automobile crash near the Queens College parking lot which instantly killed a colleague, Dr. Patrick Quinn,”Teacher at Queens College Killed in Automobile Crash”, The New York Times, October 22, 1966, accessed May 25, 2026 and died a few days later, aged 32.”LeBOST, BARBARA, October 25, of New York, beloved daughter of Mr. and Mrs Nathan Kanterman, sister of Mrs. Marilyn Milske, Mrs. Leon (Patricia) Friedman. Interment Clover Hill Park Cemetery…”, The Detroit News November 3, 1966. Her poetry was published posthumously, notably the collection Mind's Country and Other Poems (1968) in the Penguin Modern Poets series.Barbara LeBost, Mind's Country: and Other Poems (London: Villiers Publications, 1968, 57 pages)

Time said of Welles in 1967 “Patricia Welles is the pen name of Marjorie Morningstar – well, not quite, but almost. It disguises Patricia Kanterman of Detroit, who, divorced and 33, seems far removed from the hippie scene.”BABYHIP by Patricia Welles”, in Books: Short Notices: Oct. 13, 1967, Time, October 13, 1967

In April 1968, in Westminster, England, as Patricia Welles, she married Timothy J. Langdale, an English barrister. “Satisfying”, The Evening News (London), Friday 28 March 1969, p. 4: “The taste is obviously satisfying, so much so that she has married an English barrister, Timothy Langdale, and has decided to stay.” He later became a Queen's Counsel.The London Gazette, Issue 54346, 15 March 1996, p. 3319

The dust-cover of Welles’s novel Shooting Stars (May 1970) says she was then living in California, “gathering sea-shells and writing her next novel. It will be about marriage — a subject which Miss Welles has thoroughly researched”.Patricia Welles, Shooting Stars: an Astrological Novel (New York: McCall, May 1970), dust-cover short biography That of The Switch (1971) says she was back in London and was married to a barrister with whom she had one daughter,Patricia Welles, The Switch (London: Michael Joseph, 1971), dust-cover short biography born in Lambeth, London, in 1971.

In 1995, Welles became a director of the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society.

Publications Babyhip (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1967) Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969) Leo on the Ascendant (London: Michael Joseph, 1969 ) Shooting Stars: an Astrological Novel (New York: McCall, May 1970) The Switch (London: Michael Joseph, 1971) Angel in the Snow (1979) Members Only, a Novel (1981) The Ghost of S.W.1 (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1986, ), also published in paperback as Sara’s Ghost (1987) Comeuppance Look to This Day (2013)

Notes