G. B. Stern

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Standard Name: Stern, G. B.
Birth Name: Gladys Bertha Stern
Self-constructed Name: Bronwyn
Indexed Name: G. B. Stern
Pseudonym: G. B. Stern
Nickname: Peter
Nickname: Tynx
GBS , who was writing through a large stretch of the twentieth century, published over forty novels of a middle-brow character, as well as light plays, short stories, informal criticism, and haphazard autobiographical memoirs. Her high reputation has somewhat declined, but her family saga about the cosmopolitan Jewish Rakonitz family is still remembered.
Colour, head-and-shoulders drawing of G. B. Stern, wearing a white cap and a black scarf. The edges of her image fade into the white background. The image was likely used on a pre-war cigarette card.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Literary responses Sheila Kaye-Smith
G. B. Stern calls this book Kaye-Smith's most important contribution to Catholic literature.
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery, 1958.
90
Textual Production Sheila Kaye-Smith
With her friend G. B. Stern , SKS published More Talk of Jane Austen, proposed by Kaye-Smith to follow their earlier Talking of Jane Austen, 1943.
British Book News. British Council.
(1951): 52
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery, 1958.
89
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
2538 (22 September 1950): 595
Material Conditions of Writing Sheila Kaye-Smith
SKS 's novel Little England, written during the First World War, is, says G. B. Stern , infused with . . . maternal brooding tenderness.
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery, 1958.
84
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
875 (24 October 1918): 506
Friends, Associates F. Tennyson Jesse
Gordon Place became the centre of an active female literary community, which included Elizabeth Bowen , Rose Macaulay , Virginia Woolf , Ivy Low (who was also a good friend of Viola Meynell ), Ivy Compton-Burnett
Residence Georgette Heyer
The following year they moved to a haunted house in Macedonia. In 1930 they returned to England, where they occupied various homes. Their first was near Horsham; the second, where they stayed...
Literary responses Rumer Godden
Its first readers loved this book: these included retiring literary agent Curtis Brown , his son Spencer Curtis Brown , and the publishers Peter and Nico Davies (who called it without doubt a masterpiece and...
Textual Production Pamela Frankau
PF published Shaken in the Wind, the novel with which her friend G. B. Stern felt she first reached her potential.
The title comes from St Matthew's gospel: Christ asks people why they went...
Family and Intimate relationships Pamela Frankau
Her father, Gilbert Frankau , novelist and womaniser, came from a gifted family full of writers. He was divorced from his wife, and (in G. B. Stern 's words) nonchalantly strolled out of [Pamela's] existence...
Friends, Associates Pamela Frankau
Her aunt Eliza Aria introduced the very young PF to many of her older, god-like friends: first of all actress Sybil Thorndike and writers Michael Arlen and Osbert Sitwell .
Frankau, Pamela. I Find Four People. I. Nicholson and Watson, 1935.
133-4
Later came John Van Druten
Travel Pamela Frankau
PF was in the USA during the period of collapse described by Stern , but she returned to England in November 1940, as the bombs were falling most thickly.
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery, 1958.
123
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Literary responses Pamela Frankau
Soon after the appearance of this novel G. B. Stern wrote that she would find its emotionally painful scenes almost too hard to read again, were it not for the triumphant-after-pain solution with which it...
Textual Production Clemence Dane
After she finished this adaptation, G. B. Stern introduced her to Max Beerbohm. At this meeting the idea of casting Ivor Novello in The Happy Hypocrite first came up, suggested by Beerbohm's niece Viola Tree
Literary responses Maria Callcott
This time MC succeeded in rivalling A History of England by Mrs. Markham (Elizabeth Penrose ). The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography sees Little Arthur's History of England as proto-Victorian in offering to children...
Friends, Associates Mary Butts
A party at MB 's flat at 43 Belsize Park Gardens in London was attended by Evelyn Waugh , G. B. Stern , and Rebecca West .
Blaser, Robin et al. “Afterword”. Imaginary Letters, Talonbooks, 1979, pp. 61-80.
65
Reception Louisa May Alcott
Following her death, G. K. Chesterton in a laudatory (if sexist) review classed LMA with Austen as an early realist, and praised her apt depictions of human truths.
Chesterton, G. K. “Louisa Alcott”. Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott, edited by Madeleine B. Stern, G. K. Hall, 1984, pp. 212-14.
213-14
She was a favourite writer...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Stern, G. B., and John Van Druten. The Rakonitz Chronicles. Chapman and Hall, 1932.
Stern, G. B. The Way it Worked Out. Sheed and Ward, 1956.
Stern, G. B. The Young Matriarch. Cassell, 1942.
Stern, G. B. Trumpet Voluntary. Cassell, 1944.