Sydney Box

Standard Name: Box, Sydney

Used Form: Evelyn August

Connections

Connections	Author name Sort descending	Excerpt
Author summary	Muriel Box	MB , who collaborated with her first husband, Sydney , in the mid twentieth century on numerous plays (the more than fifty which preceded the Second World War included two volumes of one-acters with all-female...
Dedications	Muriel Box	She dedicated it To Sydney with love. Box, Muriel. The Big Switch. Macdonald. prelims He had helped her with revisions at a time when, after several drafts, she had lost confidence in her work after having got nowhere with a play...
Family and Intimate relationships	Muriel Box	When Muriel Baker first read Sydney Box 's award-winning Murder Trial she wrote: A gem of a one-act play! She thought him likely to produce good work for films, and on this basis exchanged letters...
Occupation	Muriel Box	As well as writing for film and returning to continuity work, MB embarked during the Second World War on a career as a director, working at first for Verity Films . This had been founded...
Family and Intimate relationships	Muriel Box	Sydney Box suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in late 1959. (His wife had been worrying for some time that he was killing himself.) This resulted in some holiday time, but soon he was as busy as...
Textual Production	Muriel Box	MB later wrote of her collaboration with Sydney that he was an incurable optimist and she an incurable pessimist, so that together they made a nice balance. She also said he was good at taking...
Family and Intimate relationships	Muriel Box	Muriel Baker and the journalist and writer Sydney Box , who were living together, got married at Holborn chiefly because their lawyer told them this would improve their chances in a libel suit. Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/. under Sydney Box
Textual Production	Muriel Box	MB was still working as a continuity girl (responsible for keeping tracks of props and details of sets and shooting) when she wrote this play. It was apparently first professionally staged (as opposed to productions...
Occupation	Muriel Box	After separating from her first husband , MB became one of the founders of Femina Books , the earliest British feminist publishing firm. Box, Muriel. Odd Woman Out. Leslie Frewin. 248 Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Textual Production	Muriel Box	Muriel and Sydney Box issued a second collection of one-act plays for female performers, entitled Petticoat Plays, in 1935. After this volume Muriel recommended Sydney as writer for a documentary film, and his growing...
Textual Production	Muriel Box	Muriel and Sydney Box , her lover and future husband, together published a volume entitled Ladies Only: Six One-act Plays with All-women Casts. The date comes from the Bodleian Library 's acquisition stamp. Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true. Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/. under Sydney Box
Publishing	Muriel Box	In financial panic at the outbreak of the Second World War, Muriel and Sydney Box sold the copyright in practically all the plays we had written to date to Samuel French, Ltd. for a thousand...
Textual Production	Muriel Box	In the same year that she collaborated with her soon-to-be husband on Petticoat Plays, MB 's first independent play, Angels of War, appeared in Five New Full-Length Plays for All Women Casts, edited by John Bourne . Tylee, Claire M. et al., editors. War Plays by Women: An International Anthology. Routledge. 111
Textual Features	Muriel Box	Some of the Boxes' joint screenplays tackle the struggle by women for equality; these include The Years Between, 1946, and Good Time Girl, 1948. A piano solo from The Years Between, printed...
Performance of text	Muriel Box	A comedy about wartime evacuees by Muriel and Sydney Box , Home from Home, opened at the Lyceum Theatre , Edinburgh, after various delays and disappointments. Box, Muriel. Odd Woman Out. Leslie Frewin. 150

Timeline

By 28 November 1934

The young Flora Robson , in A Letter to a Young Actress, contributed as a preface to Ladies Only by Muriel and Sydney Box , provided a fascinating account of women's part in amateur...

Late 1940

During heavy bombing of London by Hitler 's airforce, film-maker Sydney Box reported anti-semitism in the British Air Ministry , who wanted someone to make a propaganda film but won't do business with Jews.

Texts

Robson, Flora et al. “A Letter to a Young Actress”. Ladies Only, George G. Harrap, 1934, pp. 7-10.

Box, Muriel, and Sydney Box. Forbidden Cargo. William Heinemann, 1957.

Box, Muriel, and Sydney Box. Ladies Only. George G. Harrap, 1934.

Box, Muriel, and Sydney Box. The Black-out Book. G. H. Harrap, 1939.

Box, Muriel, and Sydney Box. The Truth About Women. Frederick Muller, 1939.