"NEW" AUTHORS: children's writers (1 of 2)

It's high time I got back round to highlighting some of the authors added to my main list in my most recent update. In this post and the next, I'll focus on 24 "new" authors who published at least some children's fiction.

Almost always when I get to note that a previously unidentified author is now identified, it's because brilliant researcher John Herrington has been able to connect the dots. So it was a satisfying small victory when a while back I stumbled across the real identity of children's author ROSAMOND BERTRAM, author of six girls' career novels, most focused on journalism. Those titles include Ann Thorne, Reporter (1939), Mary Truelove, Detective (1940), Ann Thorne Comes to America (1941), Philippa Drives On (1947), Scoop for Ann Thorne (1949), and Front Page Ann Thorne (1951).

At the time, I was researching journalist and romance writer ELISABETH MARGETSON, who published nearly three dozen romances for Ward Lock, including such titles as Poor Pagan (1936), Gay Career (1939), Serenade to a Stranger (1940), Six in Sunshine (1942), Quartette in a Flat (1947), Last Night's Kisses (1953), and Another Kind of Beauty (1960). When I found Margetson's entry on the 1939 England & Wales Register, her full name was given, lo and behold, as Rosamond Elisabeth Bertram Margetson, and her career was journalist. Add to that the dates during which both sets of books were published match up, and it seems pretty certain (though admittedly not absolutely proven) that Margetson and Bertram are one and the same.

There is considerable complexity and some tragedy involving Margetson's three marriages. There are indications, unearthed by John Herrington, that her first husband may have faked his own death and relocated to Australia, the discovery of which, only after she had remarried, caused her second marriage to fail. Wow! It was then not until many year's later, after her first husband finally did die, that she was able to marry once more, legally. Sadly, however, on her death record a bit more than a decade later, she is shown once again as a widow. On the 1939 Register, her birthdate is given as 22 Aug 1900, and information provided to Author's and Writer's for its 1935 edition says she was born in Ireland, but John discovered she was in fact born in 1898 around Birmingham. We are assuming the 22 Aug date is correct even if she shaved a couple of years off her age.

As luck would have it, John emailed me in just the past week or two with information about another author who was previously unidentified. EILEEN MEYLER was the author of a dozen or so children's titles, including some historical tales and a series of holiday stories featuring the Elwood family at their summer cottage in Dorset. The former include The Gloriet Tower (1956), set in a medieval castle, The Story of Elswyth (1959), set in Saxon England, and Apple Harvest (1970), which involves Monmouth's rebellion. The later stories include Adventure in Purbeck (1955), Adventure on Ponies (1959), Adventure Next Door (1960), and Adventure at Tremayne (1963). 

Happily, after this post went live, Barbara of the Call Me Madam / Life
Must Be Filled Up blog shared these three charming Meyler covers --
thank you Barbara!

We failed to identify her when researching my update, but John recently discovered she was Eileen Sylvia Meyler Shean (27 Dec 1900 - 5 Dec 1983). She had been a school principal who successfully turned her hand to writing. Thanks to John for that additional information, which will (eventually) get corrected in the main list!

Scans courtesy of FG!

Several highly intriguing children's authors have come my way courtesy of my Fairy Godmother. There will be three more of these (complete with the lovely dustjackets FG scanned for me) in the next post, but for now I'm only mentioning ANNE BARRETT, who sounds like a potential treasure to me. She was the author of seven children's titles in all. Her debut, Caterpillar Hill (1950), seems to have fantasy and time travel elements. Stolen Summer (1951) is the story of a girl and her widowed mother spending a summer in Dorset, while The Dark Island (1952) is about children on holiday in Ireland. The Journey of Johnny Rew (1954), also set in Dorset, is about a boy orphaned in the Blitz searching for his parents' origins. Songberd's Grove (1957), a runner up for the Carnegie Medal, is about two children fighting a neighborhood bully in London—the Guardian reviewer said the climactic scene was "as wild and ingenius as any Ealing comedy." Her other books were Sheila Burton: Dental Assistant (1956) and Midway (1967). Barrett's daughter came across some fascinating recollections her mother wrote about life in the A.T.S. in wartime Weymouth and shared them here.

I was also intrigued enough by KATHLEEN MACKENZIE to promptly order the first of a trio of books—The Starke Sisters (1963), Charlotte (1964), and Kelford Dig (1966)—which deal with girls being raised by their very Edwardian grandmother. Of course, I haven't got round to reading The Starke Sisters yet, but someday, "as God is my witness" and so on. Mackenzie wrote around two dozen children's books in all. Among the others are a number of pony stories, including a series featuring the Pentire children, beginning with The Four Pentires and Jimmy (1947), as well as individual stories including Minda (1953), Jumping Jan (1955), Nancy and the Carrs (1958), Prize Pony (1959), and The Pageant (1964) (see here for further details). Mackenzie appears on the 1939 England & Wales Register as an actress, which may explain the subject of her single biography, The Great Sarah: The Life of Mrs Siddons (1968).

CATHERINE ANTHONY CLARK was born and raised in England, though she and her rancher husband immigrated to British Columbia when she was in her twenties. She was a newspaper columnist and the author of seven children's titles with fantasy and folkloric themes, the first of which, The Golden Pine Cone (1950), appeared when she was in her late fifties. Her other titles are The Sun Horse (1951), The One-Winged Dragon (1955), The Silver Man (1959), The Diamond Feather, or the Door in the Mountain (1962), The Man with Yellow Eyes (1963), and The Hunter and the Medicine Man (1966).

Dora Fowler Martin

I already mentioned Stella Martin Currey among my "potential TBR" author posts in recent weeks. Now we come to Stella's aunt, DORA FOWLER MARTIN, who was also, therefore, the sister of J. P. Martin, known for the Uncle series of children's books. Dora was the author of three novels for adults—The Unseen Audience (1934), Wander Year (1935), and The Long Procession (1936)—about which I know next to nothing, and also two children's books, Two Young Adventurers (1938) and Caravan Days (1940).

The four children's titles by WENDY COOPER sound like they could be fun. The Laughing Lady (1957), which deals with the disappearance of a famous painting, Alibi Children (1958), The Cat Strikes at Night (1959), and Disappearing Diamonds (1960) were, fairly obviously, mystery and adventure stories. The first two at least seem to have been novelizations of BBC television productions. Cooper was also a journalist and a writer for television and radio. She contributed articles to numerous major periodicals, and published several books about women and science.

Fans of animal stories should have HELEN GRIFFITHS on their radar. She was the author of more than 20 children's titles, including titles like Horse in the Clouds (1957), Wild and Free (1958), Africano (1961), The Greyhound (1964), Stallion of the Sands (1968), Russian Blue (1973), The Kershaw Dogs (1978), and Hari's Pigeon (1982). More detail about her horse stories can be found here. Griffiths grew up in the U.K. but married a Spaniard and thereafter lived in Spain, so later titles appeared under the name Helen Santos. Her connection with Spain apparently informed her one adult novel, The Dark Swallows (1966), about an ill-fated romance during the Spanish Civil War. Two more of her children's titles, The Last Summer (1979) and Dancing Horses (1981), are also set immediately before and during the civil war, and focus (believe it or not) on a bull-fighting horse and her colt.

And on the topic of animal stories, there's CECILIA KNOWLES, whose five children's titles are often focused on animals. These include Hua Ma, the Flower Pony (1947), Torry, the Roe Deer (1950), We Went to Live in Scotland (1954), Kelpie, a Scottish Sheepdog (1958), and Hippo, a Welsh Cob (1960).

FREDA COLLINS was a playwright, lecturer, and children's author. Most of her plays and stories were religious in theme, but she also published a series of books about Brownies, including The Brownies at No. 9 (1936), The Pack That Ran Itself (1956), The Woodland Pack (1957), The Brownie Year (1957), The Good Turn Hunters (1963), and The Patchwork Pack (1968). On the 1939 England & Wales Register, she is identified as an air raid warden.

And rounding out this post are two authors of only two books each. ELSIE BLEY's are Tell Us a Tale (1950), illustrated by Grace Lodge, and The Secret of the Headland (1955), a holiday adventure featuring two children at the seaside with an aunt and her friend who were in the French Resistance. How much is made of the latter plot element is unknown, but it could be interesting.

And I know very little about the unidentified BARBARA GILSON's Beyond the Dragon Door (1934) and Queen of the Andes (1935), beyond that they appear to be girls' adventure stories.

Undoubtedly not all of these are treasures, but some of them might be. You just never know, which is what keeps me poking around! Next time, 12 more children's authors from my last update.