Clemence Dane

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CD wrote, during the earlier twentieth century, over thirty plays for the stage, radio, and screen, in addition to her journalism and other non-fiction, and fourteen fictional works ranging from girls' school novels to detective fiction. Her work frequently addressed political issues of the day.
  • BirthName: Winifred Ashton
  • Pseudonyms: Clemence Dane
    CD took her pseudonym from the church of St Clement Danes in the Strand, London.
    Weintraub, Stanley, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 10. Gale Research, 1982.
    10: 135
    Morgan, Fidelis, editor. The Years Between: Plays by Women on the London Stage 1900-1950. Virago, 1994.
    61
    Demastes, William W., and Katherine E. Kelly, editors. British Playwrights, 1880-1956. Greenwood Press, 1996.
    97
    ; Diana Portis
    CD used Diana Portis as her stage name.
    Morgan, Fidelis, editor. The Years Between: Plays by Women on the London Stage 1900-1950. Virago, 1994.
    61

Black and white photograph of Clemence Dane, shown from the shoulders up, and posed with her body on an angle and her face turned to face the camera directly. She is wearing a black shirt with a long, dark, beaded necklace, and she has short, dark hair.

Milestones

21 February 1888

CD was born Winifred Ashton in Westcombe Park Road, Greenwich, just outside London.
Some sources list her birthplace as Blackheath (adjacent to Greenwich) and some mistakenly give 1887 as the year.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Morgan, Fidelis, editor. The Years Between: Plays by Women on the London Stage 1900-1950. Virago, 1994.
61

14 March 1921

CD 's first play, A Bill of Divorcement, opened at St Martin's Theatre , London; it ran for 401 performances, starring Meggie Albanesi .
Weintraub, Stanley, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 10. Gale Research, 1982.
10: 133, 135
Dane, Clemence. Collected Plays. William Heinemann, 1961.
vii
Demastes, William W., and Katherine E. Kelly, editors. British Playwrights, 1880-1956. Greenwood Press, 1996.
98

1932

The film version of A Bill of Divorcement was released; the screenplay was by CD herself.
Morgan, Fidelis, editor. The Years Between: Plays by Women on the London Stage 1900-1950. Virago, 1994.
61

1964

CD 's final play, The Godson. A Fantasy, appeared the year before her death.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

July 1964

CD published London Has a Garden, a history (containing personal reminiscences) of the Covent Garden area where she lived.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
The British National Bibliography. Council of the British National Bibliography; British Library, Bibliographic Services Division, 1950.
Morgan, Fidelis, editor. The Years Between: Plays by Women on the London Stage 1900-1950. Virago, 1994.
62

28 March 1965

CD died in Chelsea, London, leaving most of her small estate to her secretary-companion, Olwen Bowen-Davies .
Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press, 1993.
126
Demastes, William W., and Katherine E. Kelly, editors. British Playwrights, 1880-1956. Greenwood Press, 1996.
98
Weintraub, Stanley, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 10. Gale Research, 1982.
10: 133
Morgan, Fidelis, editor. The Years Between: Plays by Women on the London Stage 1900-1950. Virago, 1994.
64

Biography

Birth and Family

21 February 1888

CD was born Winifred Ashton in Westcombe Park Road, Greenwich, just outside London.
Some sources list her birthplace as Blackheath (adjacent to Greenwich) and some mistakenly give 1887 as the year.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Morgan, Fidelis, editor. The Years Between: Plays by Women on the London Stage 1900-1950. Virago, 1994.
61

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