Marjorie Bowen
| Marjorie Bowen | |
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Marjorie Bowen
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| Born | 1 November 1885 |
| Died | 23 December 1952 (aged 67) |
| Occupation | British writer |
Marjorie Bowen (pseudonym of Mrs Gabrielle Margaret V[ere] Long née Campbell) (1 November 1885 – 23 December 1952) was a British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and biography.
Bowen was born in 1885 on Hayling Island in Hampshire. She had a difficult childhood; her alcoholic father left the family at an early age and was eventually found dead on a London street. She and her sister grew up in poverty with a less than affectionate mother. Bowen studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and later in Paris. Her first novel, the violent historical The Viper of Milan (written when she was 16) was rejected by several publishers, who considered it inappropriate for a young woman to have written such a novel. It went on to become a best-seller when eventually published. After this, Bowen's prolific writings were the chief financial support for her family.
She was married twice: first, from 1912 to 1916, to a Sicilian, Zefferino Emilio Constanza, who died of tuberculosis, and then to Arthur L. Long. Bowen had four children; a son and a daughter (who died in infancy) with Costanza, and two sons with Long.
In 1938, Bowen was one of the signatories to a petition organised by the National Peace Council, calling for an international peace conference in an effort to avert war in Europe.
In an interview for Twentieth Century Authors, she listed her hobbies as "painting, needlework and reading".
Bowen died on 22 December 1952, after suffering serious concussion as a result of a fall in her bedroom.
Her total output numbers over 150 volumes with the bulk of her work under the 'Bowen' pseudonym. She also wrote under the names Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye and Margaret Campbell. After The Viper of Milan (1906), she produced a steady stream of writings until the day of her death. Bowen also wrote history books aimed at a popular readership.
Under the pseudonym "Joseph Shearing", Bowen wrote several mystery novels inspired by true-life crimes. For instance, For Her to See (1947, AKA So Evil My Love) is a fictionalised version of the Charles Bravo murder. The Shearing novels were especially popular in the United States, Moss Rose, The Golden Violet and Forget-Me-Not achieving both critical and commercial success, being championed by reviewers such as Phil Stong. Until the late 1940s, the true identity of Shearing was not known to the general public, and some speculated it was the pseudonym of F. Tennyson Jesse. Under the "George R. Preedy" pseudonym, she wrote two non-supernatural horror novels, Dr. Chaos and The Devil Snar'd. Her last, posthumous, novel was The Man with the Scales (1954); it is about a man obsessed with revenge, and contains supernatural elements reminiscent of E. T. A. Hoffmann. Many of these stories were published as Berkley Medallion Books. Several of her books were adapted as films. Bowen's supernatural short fiction was gathered in three collections: The Last Bouquet (1933), The Bishop of Hell, (1949) (featuring an introduction by Michael Sadleir) and the posthumous Kecksies, edited for Arkham House in the late 1940s, but not actually published until 1976.
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