Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long (néeCampbell; 1 November 1885 – 23 December 1952), who used thepseudonymsMarjorie Bowen,George R. Preedy,Joseph Shearing,Robert Paye,John Winch, andMargaret Campbell orMrs. Vere Campbell,[1] was a British author who wrotehistorical romances andsupernatural horror stories, as well as works ofpopular history and biography.[2]
Bowen was born in 1885 onHayling Island in Hampshire. Heralcoholic father Vere Douglas Campbell left the family when Bowen was young and was eventually found dead on a London street. She and her sister grew up in poverty, and their mother was reportedly unaffectionate.[3] Bowen studied at theSlade School of Fine Art and later in Paris.[3] At the age of 16, Bowen wrote her first work of fiction, a violent historical novel set inmedieval Italy titledThe Viper of Milan.[3] The book was rejected by several publishers, who considered it inappropriate for a young woman to have written such a novel.[3] It went on to become a best-seller when eventually published.[3] After this, Bowen's prolific writings were the chief financial support for her family.
She was married twice: first, from 1912 to 1916, to aSicilian, Zefferino Emilio Constanza, who died oftuberculosis, and then to Arthur L. Long. Bowen had four children; a son and a daughter (who died in infancy) with Constanza, and two sons with Long.[3] Her son with Long,Athelstan Charles Ethelwulf Long, was acolonial administrator.
In 1938, Bowen signed a petition organised by theNational Peace Council, calling for an international peace conference in an effort to avert war in Europe.[4]
In an interview forTwentieth Century Authors, she listed her hobbies as "painting, needlework and reading".[3]Her cousin was the artist Nora Molly Campbell (1888–1971).Bowen died on 23 December 1952 at theSt Charles Hospital in Kensington, London after suffering seriousconcussion as a result of a fall in her bedroom.[5]
Bowen wrote more than 150 books, with the majority being published under the pseudonym "Marjorie Bowen". She also wrote under the names Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye and Margaret Campbell. After publishingThe Viper of Milan (1906), she produced a steady stream of writings until her death. Under her own name, Bowen primarily publishedhistorical novels, including a trilogy aboutKing William III:I Will Maintain (1910),Defender of the Faith (1911), andGod and the King (1911).[6] Her 1909 novelBlack Magic is aGothic horror novel about a medieval witch.[7] Bowen also wrote non-fiction history books aimed at a popular readership.[3]
Under the pseudonym "Joseph Shearing", Bowen wrote severalmystery novels inspired by real crimes. For instance,For Her to See (1947,a.k.a.So Evil My Love) is a fictionalised version of theCharles Bravo murder.[8] The Shearing novels were especially popular in the United States, withMoss Rose,The Golden Violet andForget-Me-Not achieving both critical and commercial success, being championed by reviewers such asPhil Stong.[9] Until the late 1940s, the identity of Shearing was not known to the general public, and some speculated it was the pseudonym ofF. Tennyson Jesse.[9]
Under the "George R. Preedy" pseudonym, Bowen wrote two non-supernatural horror novels,Dr. Chaos andThe Devil Snar'd.[10] Her last,posthumous, novel wasThe Man with the Scales (1954), about a man obsessed with revenge, and contains supernatural elements reminiscent of the works ofE. T. A. Hoffmann.[11] Many of these stories were published asBerkley 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 byMichael Sadleir) and the posthumousKecksies, edited forArkham House in the late 1940s, but not published until 1976.[2][12]
Bowen's books are much sought after by aficionados of gothic horror and received praise from critics.Graham Greene stated in hisParis Review interview (Autumn 1953), "I chose Marjorie Bowen [as a major influence] because as I have told you, I don't think that the books that one reads as an adult influence one as a writer... But books such as Marjorie Bowen's, read at a young age, do influence one considerably."[13] Horror reviewer Robert Hadji described Bowen as "one of the great supernatural writers of this century".[2]Fritz Leiber referred to "Marjorie Bowen's brilliantBlack Magic".[14]Jessica Amanda Salmonson, discussingThe Last Bouquet, described Bowen's prose as "stylish and moody, dramatic to the highest degree" and stated "what in other hands is merely tacky or gross is, from Marjorie Bowen, a superior art, chilling and seductive".[15]
Sally Benson inThe New Yorker, discussing the "Joseph Shearing" books, wrote, "Mr Shearing is a painstaking researcher, a superb writer, a careful technician, and a master of horror. There is no one else quite like him."[9] ReviewingThe Crime of Laura SarelleWill Cuppy stated, "Those who want a good workout of the more perilous emotions will do well to read Mr. Shearing's impressive tale of love, death and doom.... Join the Shearing cult and meet one of the most malevolent females in song or story."[9] In an article about women writers, the Australian newspaperThe Courier-Mail described Bowen as "one of the best of our modern novelists."[16]Sheldon Jaffery stated that Bowen's "weird fiction ranks favorably with such distaff portrayers of the supernatural asMary Wilkins-Freeman,Edith Wharton andLady Cynthia Asquith."[17]
By contrast,Colin Wilson criticized Bowen as a writer of "bad adventure stories" in a review ofA Sort of Life byGraham Greene.[18]
"Preface"; "The Hidden Ape"; "Kecksies"; "Raw Material"; "The Avenging of Ann Leete"; "The Crown Derby Plate"; "The Sign-Painter and the Crystal Fishes"; "Scoured Silk"; "The Breakdown"; "One Remained Behind"; "The House by the Poppy Field"; "Florence Flannery"; "Half-Past Two"
Gustavus Adolphus II (1594–1632): elected King of Sweden, of the Goths and Vandals (1988)
Twilight and Other Supernatural Romances (1998) – published byAsh-Tree Press
Preface: "Marjorie Bowen 1885–1952: Some Random Recollections by One of Her Sons"; Introduction byJessica Amanda Salmonson: "The Supernatural Romances of Marjorie Bowen"; "Dark Ann"; "The Last Bouquet"; "Madam Spitfire"; "The Lady Clodagh"; "Decay"; "The Fair Hair of Ambrosine'; "Ann Mellor's Lover"; "Giudetta's Wedding Night"; "Twilight"; "The Burning of the Vanities"; "A Stranger Knocked"; "They Found My Grave"; "Brent's Folly"; "The Confession of Beau Sekforde"; "The Recluse and Springtime"; "Vigil"; "Julia Roseingrave"; Author's Afterword: "A Ghostly Experience: The Presence of Evil"
Collected Twilight Stories (2010) – published by Oxford City Press
"Scoured Silk"; "The Breakdown"; "One Remained Behind – A Romance a la Mode Gothique"; "The House by the Poppy Field"; "Half-Past Two"; "Elsie's Lonely Afternoon"; "The Extraordinary Adventure of Mr John Proudie"; "Ann Mellor's Lover"; "Florence Flannery"; "Kecksies"; "The Avenging of Ann Leete"; "The Bishop of Hell"; "The Crown Derby Plate"; "The Fair Hair of Ambrosine"; "The Housekeeper"; "Raw Material"; "The Hidden Ape"; "The Sign-Painter and the Crystal Fishes"
^Jessica Amanda Salmonson (ed) (1998)Twilight and other Supernatural Romances: Introduction, quoting Hilary Long, son of Marjorie Bowen.
^abcRobert Hadji, "Marjorie Bowen" inJack Sullivan (ed.) (1986),The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 50–51.
^abcdefgh"Long, Mrs. Gabrielle Margaret Vere (Campbell)", inStanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature (Third Edition). New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950 (pp. 845–6).
^National Petition for A New Peace Conference,(23 November 1938) National Peace Council. (p. 8).
^F. Seymour Smith,What Shall I Read Next? A Personal Selection of Twentieth Century English Books. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010.ISBN0521064929 (p. 95).
^Black Magic: A Tale of the Rise and Fall of Antichrist (1909) is a Gothic novel uniting historical and supernatural elements..." George M Johnson,Late-Victorian and Edwardian British Novelists. Detroit; Gale Research, 1995.ISBN9780810357143 (p.45).
^Jane W. Stedman, "Shearing, Joseph" inTwentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, edited by James Vinson and D.L. Kirkpatrick. St. James Press, 1985.ISBN0-312-82418-1 (pp. 797–801).
^abcd"Shearing, Joseph", in Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft,Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950 (pp. 845–6).
^Neil Wilson,Shadows in the Attic: A Guide to British Supernatural Fiction, 1820–1950. Boston Spa, British Library, 2000.ISBN0712310746 (p. 97).
^Edward Wagenknecht.Seven Masters of Supernatural Fiction. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991 (pp. 165, 180).
Pamela Cleaver, "Bowen, Marjorie" in Lesley Henderson, D. L. Kirkpatrick (eds.)Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers. Chicago: St. James Press, 1990.ISBN091228997X.
John C. Tibbetts,The Furies of Marjorie Bowen. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2019,ISBN9781476677163. Introduction byMichael Dirda.
