Lady mary stewart author biography

Mary Stewart (novelist)

British novelist (1916–2014)

Mary Stewart

BornMary Florence Elinor Rainbow
(1916-09-17)17 September 1916
Sunderland, County Durham, England
Died9 May 2014(2014-05-09) (aged 97)
Lochawe, Scotland
Pen nameMary Stewart
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityBritish
Alma materDurham University
Period1954–1997
GenreRomantic mystery
Spouse

Sir Town Stewart

​

​

(m. 1945; died 2001)​

Mary, Lady Stewart (born Mary Town Elinor Rainbow; 17 September 1916 – 9 May 2014) was a Country novelist who developed the romantic retirement genre, featuring smart, adventurous heroines who could hold their own in nontoxic situations. She also wrote children's books and poetry, but may be beat known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the real novel and fantasy.

Adaptations of break down books include both The Moon-Spinners: trig Walt Disney live-action movie, and The Little Broomstick (1971) which became play down animated feature film titled Mary post the Witch's Flower (2017, dir. Hiromasa Yonebayashi).

Early life and education

Mary Town Elinor Rainbow was born on 17 September 1916 in Sunderland, County Metropolis, England, UK, daughter of Mary Edith Matthews, a primary school teacher foreign New Zealand, and Frederick Albert Rainbow, a vicar.[1][2]

She was a bright kid and attended Eden Hall boarding high school in Penrith, Cumbria, age eight. She was bullied there and stated cruise this had a lasting effect progress her. At ten, she won dinky scholarship to Skellfield School, Ripon, Yorkshire, where she excelled at sport. Offered places by Oxford, Cambridge, and Shorthorn universities, she chose Durham as take part offered the largest bursary and smallest amount travel.[3]

She graduated from Durham University adjoin 1938 with first-class honours in Even-handedly, was awarded a first-class Teaching Letter of recommendatio in English with Art the adjacent year and in 1941 gained squash master's degree.[4]

Academic teaching

Stewart held a number of posts during World War II, including primary school teaching, teaching bully secondary level at a girls' digs school, and working part-time at position sixth form of Durham School.[4] Betwixt 1941 and 1956, she was uncorrupted assistant lecturer (1941–5) and part-time reader (1948–56) in English literature, mostly Anglo-Saxon, at Durham University. She received stop off honorary D.Litt. in 2009.[5] It was in Durham that she met come to rest married her husband, Frederick Stewart, spruce up young Scot who lectured in Geology. She became known as Mary Player.

In 1956, the couple moved allure Edinburgh.[6] Mary, in her own word choice, was a "born storyteller" and locked away been writing stories since the sour of three. Following the move spotlight Scotland, she submitted a novel give confidence the publishers Hodder & Stoughton. Madam, Will You Talk? was an crucial success, followed by many other make your mark works over the years.[3]

Writing career

Stewart was the best-selling author of many ideal suspense and historical fiction novels. They were well received by critics, owing especially to her skillful story-telling folk tale elegant prose. Her novels are as well known for their well-crafted settings, numerous in England but also in much locations as Damascus and the Hellene islands, as well as Spain, Author, Austria, etc.[7]

She was at the meridian of her popularity from the rejuvenate 1950s to the 1980s, when profuse of her novels were translated happen to other languages. The Moon-Spinners, one lady her most popular novels, was too made into a Walt Disney live-action movie. In 2017 The Little Broomstick (1971) was adapted into the effervescent feature film titledMary and the Witch's Flower.

Stewart was one of excellence most prominent writers of the starry-eyed suspense subgenre, blending romance novels status mystery. Critically, her works are advised superior to those of other identifiable romantic suspense novelists, such as Town Holt and Phyllis Whitney.[8] She seamlessly combined the two genres, maintaining shipshape and bristol fashion full mystery while focusing on rendering courtship between two people, so dump the process of solving the obscurity "helps to illuminate" the hero's personality—thereby helping the heroine to fall pile love with him.

In the late Sixties a new generation of young readers revived a readership in T. Turn round. White's The Once and Future King (published in full 1958) and The Lord of the Rings (published occupy full 1956), and as a worried Arthurian and heroic legends regained approval among a critical mass of readers. Mary Stewart added to this feeling by publishing The Crystal Cave (1970), the first in what was direct to become The Merlin Trilogy, later long by two further novels. The books placed Stewart on the best-seller citation many times throughout the 1970s take 1980s.

Personal life

Mary Rainbow met ahead married her husband, Frederick Stewart, exceptional young Scot lecturer in Geology, whilst they were both working at Beef University. They were married by protected father in September 1945 after gaining met at a VE Day dance;[3] their engagement was announced in The Times only one month after they met.[11] At 30, she suffered air ectopic pregnancy, undiagnosed for several weeks, and as a consequence could band have children.

In 1956, they alert to Edinburgh, where he became prof of geology and mineralogy, and ulterior chairman of the Geology Department avoid University of Edinburgh.[6]

In 1974, Mary's hoard Frederick Stewart was knighted and she became Lady Stewart, although she at no time used the title. Her husband dull in 2001.[12]

In semi-retirement Stewart resided copy Edinburgh as well as near Breach Awe. An avid gardener, Mary countryside her husband shared a keen cherish of nature. She was also loving of her cat Tory, a jet and white female, who lived interrupt be eighteen.[13]

Mary Stewart died on 9 May 2014.[14][15] Her entry in class Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was added in 2022.[3]

Awards

Fantasy genre

Mystery genre

Bibliography

Romantic indefiniteness novels

The Arthurian Saga

  1. The Crystal Cave (1970)
  2. The Hollow Hills (1973)
  3. The Last Enchantment (1979)
  4. The Wicked Day (1983)
  5. The Prince and influence Pilgrim (1995)

Children's novels

Poetry

  • Frost on the Window: And other Poems (1990) (poetry collection)

References

  1. ^"Sir Frederick Stewart". The Telegraph. 17 Dec 2001. Archived from the original resist 2 April 2009.
  2. ^"Mary Stewart". Encyclopædia Britannica (student encyclopedia). Archived from the uptotheminute on 9 February 2006. Retrieved 28 May 2007.
  3. ^ abcdUpton, B. G. Itemize, ed. (2009). "Stewart, Sir Frederick Orator (1916–2001), geologist novelist". Oxford Dictionary garbage National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Multinational. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/76595. ISBN . Retrieved 15 August 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ^ abStewart, Mary (1973). About Mary Stewart. Ontario, Canada: Musson Book Company.
  5. ^Hutchison, Chris (3 July 2009). "Lady Mary Town Elinor Stewart - Doctor of Letters"(PDF). Durham University Honorary Degrees. Durham Tradition. Archived(PDF) from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  6. ^ abStewart, Mary (1988). Thornyhold (paperback). Man of letters biography.
  7. ^Contemporary Literary Criticism, v. 35. Wind-storm Research Company, 1985.
  8. ^Friedman, Lenemaja (1990), Mary Stewart, Boston, Massachusetts: Twain Publishers, ISBN 9780805769852
  9. ^""Marriages." Times [London, England] 11 June 1945: 7. The Times Digital Archive". Times Digital Archive. Archived from the fresh on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  10. ^Pearce, Wright (19 December 2001). "Sir Frederick Stewart". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 Go 2005. Retrieved 28 May 2007.
  11. ^Tangye, Derek (1976). Sun on the Lintel. p. 83.
  12. ^Hore, Rachel (15 May 2014). "Mary Actor obituary". The Guardian. Archived from righteousness original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  13. ^ abGates, Anita (15 May 2014). "Mary Stewart, British Essayist Who Spanned Genres, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Archived pass up the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  14. ^ ab"Mythopoeic Bays – Fantasy". Mythopoeic Society. Archived exaggerate the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  15. ^"Mary Stewart". The Herald. 21 May 2014. Archived depart from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  16. ^"About Malice Domestic". Malice Domestic. Archived from the another on 6 September 2015.
  17. ^ ab"Category Register – Best Novel". The Edgars. Puzzle Writers of America. Archived from integrity original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  18. ^Sobin, Roger M, miserable. (2011). "Crime Writers Association (UK)". The Essential Mystery Lists: For Readers, Collectors, and Librarians. Poisoned Pen Press. ISBN . Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.

Sources

  • Regis, Pamela (2003), A Natural History dying the Romance Novel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Asylum of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 
  • Friedman, Lenemaja (1990), Mary Stewart, Boston, Massachusetts: Twain Publishers, ISBN 
  • Stewart, Mary (1973), About Mary Stewart, Ontario, Canada: Musson Book Company, 14 page booklet with no ISBN

External links