Margaret Kennedy

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MK achieved international fame early in her writing career with the publication of her novel The Constant Nymph and its subsequent successes on the stage and screen. Though she never attained such high recognition again, she proceeded to write fourteen more novels, many plays and film-scripts, uncollected short stories, two novellas, biography, criticism, part of a personal journal, and one volume of history. Her themes include the importance of art and artists, familial and marital relationships, and the woman's dilemma in balancing personal ambitions with social and domestic duties. She stopped producing once World War Two began, and by the time she resumed publishing in 1950 her writing fame had somewhat dissipated.

Milestones

23 April 1896

Margaret Moore Kennedy was born at 14 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann.
17, 21

December 1907

At eleven and a half years of age, MK composed her first dated piece of writing: a Poem on being asked if we ever felt triste at Leaves Green.
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann.
22-3

October 1924

MK 's second and most successful novel, The Constant Nymph, was published by Heinemann .
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann.
67
Brookner, Anita, and Margaret Kennedy. “Introduction”. The Constant Nymph, Virago, p. ix - xiv.
ix

June 1966

MK 's novella Women at Work marks the end of her publishing career.
British Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons.
1967
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
36

31 July 1967

MK died of general ill-health at her friend Flora Forster 's home at Adderbury in Oxfordshire.
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann.
214

Biography

Birth and Family

23 April 1896

Margaret Moore Kennedy was born at 14 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.
Powell, Violet. The Constant Novelist. W. Heinemann.
17, 21