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Katherine Cecil Thurston | |
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| Born | Kathleen Annie Josephine Madden (1874-04-18)18 April 1874 Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 5 September 1911(1911-09-05) (aged 37) Cork, Ireland |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | English |
| Genre | political thriller |
| Notable works | John Chilcote, M.P. |
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Katherine Cecil Thurston, bornKathleen Annie Josephine Madden (18 April 1874 – 5 September 1911), was anIrish novelist, best known for twopolitical thrillers.
Born Kathleen Annie Josephine Madden at 14 Bridge Street,Cork, Ireland, the only daughter of banker Paul J. Madden (who wasMayor of Cork in 1885–1886, and a friend ofCharles Stuart Parnell) and Eliza Madden (born Dwyer). She was educated privately at her family home, Wood's Gift, Blackrock Road.
By the end of the 19th century she was contributing short stories to various British and American publications, such asPall Mall Magazine,Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine,Harper's Magazine,Windsor Magazine and others.
On 16 February 1901, five weeks after her father's death, she married the writerErnest Temple Thurston (1879-1933). They separated in 1907 and were divorced in 1910 on grounds of his adultery and desertion. The suit went undefended. Thurston "complained that she was making more money by her books than he was, that her personality dominated his, and had said that he wanted to leave her."[1]
Katherine Thurston's novels achieved success in Britain and the United States. Her best-known work was apolitical thriller entitledJohn Chilcote, M.P. (published in 1904 asThe Masquerader in the United States). It was on theNew York Times bestseller list for two years, ranking as third best-selling book for 1904 and seventh best in 1905. Her next book,The Gambler, came out in 1905 and it too made the US best-selling lists for that year. This was the first time theNew York Times had recorded any author, female or male, as having two top-ten books in a single year.
In 1910, Thurston was back on the bestseller list at No. 4 with her novelMax, the story of a young Russian princess, who flees disguised as a boy to theMontmartre Quarter ofParis, on the night before her arranged marriage. Her 1908 novelThe Fly on the Wheel, about illicit love, was described by writerMegan Nolan in 2022 as a "lost classic of Irish fiction".[2]
John Chilcote, M.P. was adapted for the stage by American playwrightJohn Hunter Booth and opened onBroadway in 1917.
It was filmed four times: the first was asilent film byAmerican Pathé under the titleThe Compact (1912) and starringCrane Wilbur; the second a 1920 Russian/French co-production entitledChlen parlamenta. Two more films were made using the American book titleThe Masquerader: in1922 and then by theSamuel Goldwyn Company in1933 as a "talkie" starringRonald Colman.
Thurston had been dealing withepilepsy, and her blossoming career was cut short when she was found dead at the age of 37 in her hotel room in Cork. The official enquiry on 6 September 1911 gave the cause of death asasphyxia as result of a seizure.[3] She had been due to remarry later that month to Dr A. T. Bulkeley Gavin. She was buried inSt. Joseph's Cemetery, Cork.
An account of her final years, her publishing history, and her relations with Bulkeley Gavin are the subject ofThe Sensational Katherine Cecil Thurston (2006), a published thesis by C. M. Copeland. She wrote it while studying at Napier University, Edinburgh.[4]
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