Sarah Macnaughtan

26 October 1864 - 24 July 1916

Sarah Macnaughtan began her writing career in 1894 with a short story in the London magazine Temple Bar, and published her first novel in 1898. She went on to publish further short stories and highly popular novels that often enjoyed multiple editions on both sides of the Atlantic. She wrote memoirs on her childhood, her travels abroad, and most famously on her nursing experiences during the first World War.

BirthName: Sarah Broom Macnaughtan
Self-constructed: S. Macnaughtan

Milestones

26 October 1864

SM was born at Downhill Gardens in Partick (now a part of Glasgow), Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1894

Sarah Macnaughtan published her first short story, called Tom Cophetua, a modern reworking of a traditional Cinderella-like legend, in Temple Bar.

Anonymous,. “Miss S. Macnaughtan”. The Bookman, Vol.

, No. 300, Sept. 1916, pp. 162-4.

50.300 (September 1916): 163

February 1907

SM brought out The Expensive Miss Du Cane, a work of feminist cast which became one of her best-known novels alongside Christina M'Nab and A Lame Dog's Diary.

OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

By late October 1915

After she had volunteered as a war nurse for almost a year, SM published A Woman's Diary of the War, a book based on the actual journals she had been keeping during the first World War.

“A Quickening Spirit”. The Nation, Vol.

, No. 5, 30 Oct. 1915, p. 188.

18.5 (30 October 1915): 189

July 24, 1916

SM died of a combination of pernicious anaemia and celiac disease (or sprue) at her home, 1 Norfolk Street, Park Lane West, London, but not before being given the honour of becoming a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Macnaughtan, Sarah. My War Experiences in Two Continents. Editor Keays-Young, Betty, John Murray, 1919.

268

By late April 1919

Through John Murray , SM 's My War Experiences was published posthumously by her niece Betty Keays-Young , or Mrs. Lionel Salmon as she is called on the title-page.

“Mr. Murray’s New Books”. The Nation, Vol.

, No. 4, 26 Apr. 1919, p. 117.

25.4 (26 April 1919): 117

OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Biography

Birth and Background

26 October 1864

SM was born at Downhill Gardens in Partick (now a part of Glasgow), Lanarkshire, Scotland.

Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.