Margaret Landon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Margaret Dorothea Mortenson (1903-09-07)September 7, 1903 Somers, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | December 4, 1993(1993-12-04) (aged 90) Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | Wheaton College, Education(B.A., 1925) |
| Occupation(s) | Writer,Presbyterian missionary |
| Spouse | Kenneth Landon |
| Children | 4 |
Margaret Landon (September 7, 1903 – December 4, 1993) was an American writer known forAnna and the King of Siam, her best-selling 1944 novel of the life ofAnna Leonowens which eventually sold over a million copies and was translated into more than twenty languages. In 1950, Landon sold the musical play rights toRichard Rodgers andOscar Hammerstein II, who created the musicalThe King and I from her book. A later work,Never Dies the Dream, appeared in 1949.
BornMargaret Dorothea Mortenson to Annenus Duabus "A.D." and Adelle Johanna Mortenson (néeEstburg) inSomers, Wisconsin, she was one of three daughters in a devoutMethodist family. The family moved toEvanston, Illinois, where she graduated fromEvanston Township High School in 1921.
Landon attendedWheaton College inWheaton, Illinois, graduating in 1925. She taught at a school for a year, then marriedKenneth Landon, whom she knew from Wheaton, and in 1927 they signed up asPresbyterian missionaries toSiam (Thailand).
Between 1927–37, Landon raised her first three children while running a mission school inTrang and read extensively about the country. During her readings, she learned aboutAnna Leonowens, the 19th Century governess to the Siamese royal family ofMongkut (Rama IV). When the Landon family returned to America in 1937, she soon began writing articles and then began researching material for a book on Leonowens.
Kenneth Landon returned to work on aPhD and wrote a book on Thai politics.[1] With the outbreak ofwar, Thai ambassadorSeni Pramoj refused to deliverhis government's declaration of war on the grounds that theregent had not counter-signed it. Dr. Landon, as Washington's leading expert on Thailand, worked with theOffice of Strategic Services and then with theDepartment of State to create theFree Thai resistance movement. Dr. Landon later donated hundreds of pages of transcripts of Free Thai radio broadcasts to the Library, along with a small but important collection of post-World War II Thai books on politics as well as Thaipolitical fiction.[2]
The couple's fourth child, Kenneth, Jr., was born in Washington, D.C., in 1943. He followed the lead of his parents and took up writing about his own field of interest, releasingGod of Glory: The Promise of Relationship in 1992.
Margaret Landon was married 67 years. She died inAlexandria, Virginia, December 4, 1993, aged 90, leaving 13 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. She is interred in Wheaton Cemetery in Illinois.
In 1972,Twentieth Century Fox produced a non-musical television sitcom forCBS based on the film version ofThe King and I entitledAnna and the King, withSamantha Eggar taking the part of Anna Leonowens andYul Brynner reprising his role as the king. The series was unsuccessful and was canceled after 13 episodes. Landon charged the producers with "inaccurate and mutilated portrayals" of her literary property and sued for copyright infringement.[3][4] The suit initially failed in late 1974, but after the judgment was appealed, the parties chose to settle out of court, and a settlement was reached in 1975 with which Landon was satisfied.
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