Margaret Ayer Barnes | |
|---|---|
 Barnes on her graduation day in 1907 | |
| Born | Margaret Ayer (1886-04-08)April 8, 1886 |
| Died | October 25, 1967(1967-10-25) (aged 81) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | Bryn Mawr College (BA) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingEdward |
Margaret Ayer Barnes (April 8, 1886,Chicago, Illinois – October 25, 1967,Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. Her 1930 novelYears of Grace was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Margaret Ayer grew up the youngest of four siblings in Chicago, Illinois. As a child, she had a keen interest in theater and reading. She befriendedEdward Sheldon,[1] a playwright who would encourage her to become a writer many years later.
Ayer attendedBryn Mawr College, where she earned an A.B. degree in 1907.[2] In 1936, she received an honorary degree in Doctor of Letters fromOglethorpe University. She married Cecil Barnes in 1910,[3] and had three sons.
In 1920, Barnes was elected alumnae director of Bryn Mawr and served three years. As director, she helped to organize theBryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, which offered an alternative educational program for women workers within a traditional institution. Consisting mainly of young, single immigrant women with little to no academic background, the summer program offered courses in progressive education, liberal arts and economics. Women in the program were encouraged to develop confidence as speakers, writers and leaders in the workplace.[4]
In 1926, at age 40, Barnes broke her back in a traffic accident. With the encouragement of friend and playwrightEdward Sheldon, she took up writing as a way to occupy her time. Between 1926 and 1930 she wrote several short stories — all of them published by magazines and later collected in a volume titledPrevailing Winds[5] — and three plays.
Her first play, an adaptation ofEdith Wharton's 1920 novelThe Age of Innocence, was purchased byKatharine Cornell in 1928.Gilbert Miller produced it on Broadway with Cornell's husbandGuthrie McClintic directing; the play ran for 207 performances. Cornell next starred in a Broadway production ofDishonored Lady (1930), a play that Barnes wrote with Sheldon based on the famous case ofMadeleine Smith. It was a popular melodrama that ran 16 weeks on Broadway followed by a long tour.[6][7][8]
Barnes' 1929 playJenny was also written in collaboration with Sheldon. The comedy was produced on Broadway starringJane Cowl.[5][9]
In 1931 Barnes won thePulitzer Prize for her first novel,Years of Grace.[10]
A 1936 lawsuit againstMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer for copyright infringement claimed that the script MGM used for the motion pictureLetty Lynton (1932) plagiarized material from the playDishonored Lady byEdward Sheldon and Barnes.[11] The film is still unavailable today because of this lawsuit.
Barnes was the wife of a prominent Chicago attorney, Cecil Barnes, with whom she had three sons including noted architectEdward Larrabee Barnes. Her older sister wassuffragette and fellow authorJanet Ayer Fairbank; her nieceJanet Fairbank was a well-known operatic singer.[12]Barnes died October 25, 1967, at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 81.[5]
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