Marjorie Bowen

01 November 1885 - 22 December 1952

MB was an extraordinarily prolific popular writer, producing over 150 books during her life-long writing career, which ran to the mid twentieth century. Her generic repertoire was also large, and included children's books, biographies, short stories, critical studies, and novels dealing with romance, the supernatural, and history. In her autobiography, she describes herself thus: A woman who earned her living by writing fiction—with occasional essays in that kind of history deplored by historians.

Bowen, Marjorie. The Debate Continues. William Heinemann, 1939.

Milestones

1 November 1885

Gabrielle Margaret Vere Campbell (who later wrote as MB ) was born in a cottage on Hayling Island, Hampshire. Her birth hour was between the days of All Saints and All Souls,

Bowen, Marjorie. The Debate Continues. William Heinemann, 1939.

as she writes in her autobiography.

Some sources have her birthdate as 1886, others as 1888. MB participated in the fiction perpetrated by the publisher of her first novel, who promoted her as a teen-aged authorial phenomenon (born 1888). Her autobiography gives no birth year. However, her birth certificate gives definitive proof that she was born on the 1st of November 1885 at Hayling South. Grateful thanks to researcher Elizabeth Murray for this information.

Marjorie Bowen: Birth Certificate. General Register Office, 6 nov. 2001.

birth certificate

Wagenknecht, Edward. Seven Masters of Supernatural Fiction. Greenwood Press, 1991.

152

Marjorie Bowen: Birth Certificate. General Register Office, 6 nov. 2001.

birth certificate

By 31 August 1906

MB 's first novel, The Viper of Milan: A Romance of Lombardy, written in her teens, finally appeared in print after being rejected by eleven publishers; it became one of her best-known works.

Johnson, George M., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 153. Gale Research, 1995.

153: 43

Wagenknecht, Edward. Seven Masters of Supernatural Fiction. Greenwood Press, 1991.

153

TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive, http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.

242 (31 August 1906): 300

22 December 1952

MB died, after suffering a serious concussion from a fall in her bedroom.

Johnson, George M., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 153. Gale Research, 1995.

153: 39, 50

25 January 1954

MB 's only novel published posthumously, The Man with the Scales, relates the story, with supernatural elements, of a man who becomes obsessed with revenge.

Wagenknecht, Edward. Seven Masters of Supernatural Fiction. Greenwood Press, 1991.

165

2712 (22 January 1954): 49

Biography

MB also wrote under other pseudonyms. Initially, she was given the pseudonym Marjorie Bowen to avoid confusion with her mother's name (her mother was also a writer).

Johnson, George M., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 153. Gale Research, 1995.

153: 42

Bowen, Marjorie. The Debate Continues. William Heinemann, 1939.

She likens the French name her mother gave her to the name Josephine, which was given to her mother by her grandmother, who sympathised with the French Empress. MB felt that such names were part of a sentimental flavour of faded romance passed almost furtively from one generation to another by the women in her family who dreamed of such remote foreign splendours.

Bowen, Marjorie. The Debate Continues. William Heinemann, 1939.