Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Marie Belloc Lowndes
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Standard Name: Lowndes, Marie Belloc
Birth Name: Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Renée Julia Belloc
Nickname: Mary
Married Name: Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Renée Julia Lowndes
Indexed Name: Mrs Belloc Lowndes
Pseudonym: Philip Curtin
Pseudonym: Elizabeth Rayner
During a career that spanned nearly fifty years from 1889, MBL
published journalism, biography, a guidebook, history for children, novels (mostly romances or thrillers), a book about actual crimes, and four late volumes of autobiography. Her books of crime and detection were her most successful. Her list of titles numbers more than seventy.
"Marie Belloc Lowndes, book jacket" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumbhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Cover--The_chink_in_the_armour.jpg/653px-Cover--The_chink_in_the_armour.jpg/4/4b/Cover--The_chink_in_the_armour.jpg/653px-Cover--The_chink_in_the_armour.jpg.
RB
's vitality, sincerity, and pungent wit gained her the friendship of some of the most notable people of her day.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Her wide circle of friends and acquaintances included Henry James
(the two became extremely...
Friends, Associates
Katherine Mansfield
In the south of France KM
became quickly intimate in conversation with Marie Belloc Lowndes
, another writer twenty years her senior. A correspondence followed.
qtd. in
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. Diaries and Letters of Marie Belloc Lowndes, 1911-1947. Editor Marques, Susan Lowndes, Chatto and Windus, 1971.
216
Friends, Associates
Katharine Tynan
Living in a suburb of London, KT
frequented the heart of English literary culture. She had already joined London's Irish Literary Society
, and was later appointed its Honorary Vice-President.
Tynan, Katharine. The Years of the Shadow. Constable, 1919.
3-4
Among other literary figures...
Friends, Associates
Susan Tweedsmuir
ST
's parents made connections through friendship as remarkable as those made for them by family descent. Her mother was a friend of many writers and intellectuals of both sexes, including Marie Belloc Lowndes
,...
Friends, Associates
Rhoda Broughton
There her near-salon was attended by men and women belonging to every stratum of political, literary, and artistic society.
Times. Times Publishing Company.
(7 June 1920): 17
To the great regret of Marie Belloc Lowndes
, Broughton in the...
Following her early conquest of Tennyson
, AM
went on to develop a large circle of literary acquaintances. Callers on the Meynells at Palace Court included Irish writer Katharine Tynan
, Aubrey Beardsley
(while he...
Friends, Associates
Violet Trefusis
The following year Lowndes
stayed with Trefusis at West Coker Manor.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. Diaries and Letters of Marie Belloc Lowndes, 1911-1947. Editor Marques, Susan Lowndes, Chatto and Windus, 1971.
273
At this time VT
nurtured her (often edgy) relationship with writer Nancy Mitford
, who moved from England to Paris in April...
Friends, Associates
Mary Agnes Hamilton
MAH
knew and worked closely with the Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald
, though her early intense admiration for him diminished with time. Up to the year after publishing her book on him (which was also...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth von Arnim
On her trips back to England EA
made some important new friends, including Maude Stanley
, a feminist interested in reforming London streetwalkers.
Usborne, Karen. "Elizabeth": The Author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Bodley Head, 1986.
85
Stanley advised von Arnim extensively on her children's education and helped...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Charles
Combe Edge soon became a noted centre of religous, philanthropic, and social activity.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia. Macmillan, 1941.
Captain Hastings, an ambitious detective, narrates an ingenious plot by a pair of criminals to stage their arrest and acquittal, only to have Poirot solve and reveal their actual crime. Poirot is described as an...
Intertextuality and Influence
Lady Cynthia Asquith
LCA
's first published writing, an article entitled How to sit for your portrait, appeared in the Times; she had written it at the suggestion of Marie Belloc Lowndes
, who admired her...
Leisure and Society
Mary Cholmondeley
MC
founded a weekly luncheon club for women writers called the Give and Take
. Marie Belloc Lowndes
was an early member. The price of lunch was two shillings and sixpence, and the club outlived...
Leisure and Society
Margaret Kennedy
She belonged to, among other literary clubs, the Liberal Book Club
and the 30 Club, which consisted of a group of women writers who met for lunch at the Ritz Grill. Other members...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Pulse of Life. W. Heinemann, 1908.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Red Cross Barge. Smith, Elder, 1916.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Story of Ivy. W. Heinemann, 1927.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Uttermost Farthing. W. Heinemann, 1908.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. The Young Hilaire Belloc. P. J. Kenedy, 1956.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. When No Man Pursueth. W. Heinemann, 1910.
Lowndes, Marie Belloc. Where Love and Friendship Dwelt. Macmillan, 1943.