Marjorie Bowen

Marjorie Bowen

Marjorie Bowen

Marjorie Bowen
Born 1 November 1885 (1885-11)
Died 23 December 1952 (1952-12-24) (aged 67)
Occupation British writer

Marjorie Bowen (pseudonym of Mrs Gabrielle Margaret V[ere] Long née Campbell) (1 November 1885 – 23 December 1952) was a British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and biography.[1]

Life

Bowen was born in 1885 on Hayling Island in Hampshire. She had a difficult childhood; her alcoholic father left the family at an early age and was eventually found dead on a London street. She and her sister grew up in poverty with a less than affectionate mother.[2] Bowen studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and later in Paris.[2] Her first novel, the violent historical The Viper of Milan (written when she was 16) was rejected by several publishers, who considered it inappropriate for a young woman to have written such a novel.[2] It went on to become a best-seller when eventually published.[2] After this, Bowen's prolific writings were the chief financial support for her family.

She was married twice: first, from 1912 to 1916, to a Sicilian, Zefferino Emilio Constanza, who died of tuberculosis, and then to Arthur L. Long. Bowen had four children; a son and a daughter (who died in infancy) with Costanza, and two sons with Long.[2]

In 1938, Bowen was one of the signatories to a petition organised by the National Peace Council, calling for an international peace conference in an effort to avert war in Europe.[3]

In an interview for Twentieth Century Authors, she listed her hobbies as "painting, needlework and reading".[2]

Bowen died on 22 December 1952, after suffering serious concussion as a result of a fall in her bedroom.[4]

Work

Her total output numbers over 150 volumes with the bulk of her work under the 'Bowen' pseudonym. She also wrote under the names Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye and Margaret Campbell. After The Viper of Milan (1906), she produced a steady stream of writings until the day of her death. Bowen also wrote history books aimed at a popular readership.[2]

Under the pseudonym "Joseph Shearing", Bowen wrote several mystery novels inspired by true-life crimes. For instance, For Her to See (1947, AKA So Evil My Love) is a fictionalised version of the Charles Bravo murder.[5] The Shearing novels were especially popular in the United States, Moss Rose, The Golden Violet and Forget-Me-Not achieving both critical and commercial success, being championed by reviewers such as Phil Stong.[6] Until the late 1940s, the true identity of Shearing was not known to the general public, and some speculated it was the pseudonym of F. Tennyson Jesse.[6] Under the "George R. Preedy" pseudonym, she wrote two non-supernatural horror novels, Dr. Chaos and The Devil Snar'd.[7] Her last, posthumous, novel was The Man with the Scales (1954); it is about a man obsessed with revenge, and contains supernatural elements reminiscent of E. T. A. Hoffmann.[8] Many of these stories were published as Berkley Medallion Books. Several of her books were adapted as films. Bowen's supernatural short fiction was gathered in three collections: The Last Bouquet (1933), The Bishop of Hell, (1949) (featuring an introduction by Michael Sadleir) and the posthumous Kecksies, edited for Arkham House in the late 1940s, but not actually published until 1976.[1][9]

Her books are much sought after by aficionados of gothic horror and received praise from critics. Graham Greene stated in his Paris Review interview (Autumn 1953), "I chose Marjorie Bowen [as a major influence] because as I have told you, I don't think that the books that one reads as an adult influence one as a writer...But books such as Marjorie Bowen's, read at a young age, do influence one considerably."[10] Horror reviewer Robert Hadji described Bowen as "one of the great supernatural writers of this century".[1] Fritz Leiber referred to "Marjorie Bowen's brilliant Black Magic".[11] Jessica Amanda Salmonson, discussing The Last Bouquet, described Bowen's prose as "stylish and moody, dramatic to the highest degree" and stated "what in other hands is merely tacky or gross is, from Marjorie Bowen, a superior art, chilling and seductive".[12] Sally Benson in The New Yorker, discussing the "Joseph Shearing" books: "Mr Shearing is a painstaking researcher, a superb writer, a careful technician, and a master of horror. There is no one else quite like him".[6] Reviewing The Crime of Laura Sarelle Will Cuppy stated "Those who want a good workout of the more perilous emotions will do well to read Mr. Shearing's impressive tale of love, death and doom... Join the Shearing cult and meet one of the most malevolent females in song or story".[6] In an article about women writers, the Australian newspaper The Courier-Mail described Bowen as "one of the best of our modern novelists".[13]

Adaptations

Works

As Marjorie Bowen

As Joseph Shearing

As George Preedy

As Robert Paye

References

  1. 1 2 3 Robert Hadji, "Marjorie Bowen" in Jack Sullivan (ed) (1986) The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural: pp. 50–51.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Long, Mrs. Gabrielle Margaret Vere (Campbell)", in Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950, (pp. 845–6)
  3. ↑ National Petition for A New Peace Conference,(23 November 1938) National Peace Council. (p. 8).
  4. ↑ Cambridge University Press http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=bowema
  5. ↑ Jane W. Stedman, "Shearing, Joseph" in Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, edited by James Vinson and D.L. Kirkpatrick. St. James Press, 1985. ISBN 0-312-82418-1 (pp. 797–801).
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Shearing, Joseph", in Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950, (pp. 845–6)
  7. ↑ Neil Wilson, Shadows in the Attic : A Guide to British Supernatural Fiction, 1820–1950. Boston Spa, British Library, 2000. ISBN 0712310746 (p. 97).
  8. ↑ Edward Wagenknecht. Seven Masters of Supernatural Fiction. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991 (p. 165, 180).
  9. ↑ Don D'Ammassa Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction Infobase Publishing, 2009. ISBN 1438109091, (p. 188-89).
  10. ↑ The Art of Fiction:Graham Greene
  11. ↑ Fritz Leiber, "Wonder and Terror" in Kirby McCauley, Frights St. Martin's Press, 1976. ISBN 0-312-30625-3 (p.5)
  12. ↑ Jessica Amanda Salmonson, "The Last Bouquet", in Stephen Jones, Kim Newman (ed.), Horror: 100 Best Books. London. Xanadu, 1988. ISBN 0-947761-37-3 (pp. 120–122).
  13. ↑ The Courier-Mail, 6 February 1988.
  14. 1 2 Nell Gwyn: A Decoration, by Marjorie Bowen, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1926. This book was not written under the pen name, Joseph Shearing
  15. ↑ Worthless Wanton

Further reading

The New York Review of Science Fiction July 2010 (No. 263).

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