Marghanita Laski

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ML , a cultural force in twentieth-century Britain, published six novels, four biographies (one on multiple subjects), an anti-nuclear play, a collection of children's stories, three quasi-scientific investigations into secular and religious experiences, and various short stories, including a ghost story and an anti-nuclear fiction. She also edited various collections: poetry, children's stories, and essays on Charlotte Yonge . Her articles and book reviews appeared in the Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere. She also wrote three film scripts, co-authored a television series, and made a substantial contribution of quotations for the Oxford English Dictionary. ML 's novels address class issues and gender barriers, often satirically. They reflect the political, social, and economic anxieties and tensions felt in England during the Second World War and the Cold War. A self-professed atheist, ML wrote secular studies of ecstatic experiences.

Milestones

24 October 1915

Esther Pearl Laski (later known as ML ) was born in Manchester (not London, as some reference sources report), the eldest of six children.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

November 1944

ML published through her husband 's Cresset Press her first novel, Love on the Supertax, a fantastical comedy whose title invokes Walter Greenwood 's Love on the Dole, 1933.
Laski, Marghanita, and W. Stein. Love on the Supertax. Cresset Press.
prelims
OCLC WorldCat. http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

By 6 November 1953

ML 's suspense novel The Victorian Chaise-Longue juxtaposes the lives of a mid-Victorian woman and a twentieth-century woman, examining the consequences of female independence in each period.
Pringle, David, editor. St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers. St James Press.
348
Ross, Alan. “Changes of Heart”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 2701, p. 705.
705

1987

ML 's final publication was also her last literary biography: From Palm to Pine: Rudyard Kipling Abroad and at Home.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.

6 February 1988

ML , a lifelong smoker, died of cigarette-related illness in London's Royal Brompton Hospital , which specialises in the treatment of pulmonary diseases.
Contemporary Authors reports (in 2008) that she died in Dublin.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Family

24 October 1915

Esther Pearl Laski (later known as ML ) was born in Manchester (not London, as some reference sources report), the eldest of six children.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.