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Githa Sowerby

{{Short description|English playwright, children's writer and member of the Fabian Society}}

{{Use British English|date=December 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}

File:GeorgeJacombHood-1912-GithaSowerby.png

Katherine Githa Sowerby (6 October 1876 – 30 June 1970), also known under her pen name K. G. Sowerby, was an English playwright, children's writer, and member of the Fabian Society. A feminist, she was well-known during the early twentieth century for her 1912 hit play Rutherford & Son, but lapsed into obscurity in later decades.Barbara Hodgson, [https://archive.today/20130420162330/http://www.journallive.co.uk/culture-newcastle/book-reviews/2009/09/17/author-is-brought-back-to-life-61634-24710118/ "Author Is Brought Back to Life"], The Journal, 17 September 2009.

Rutherford & Son was first revived in 1980, and since then there have been several productions, including one at the Royal National Theatre in 1994 and, most recently, by Sheffield Theatres. A biography of Sowerby by Pat Riley, Looking for Githa, appeared in 2009, with a revised edition in 2019. In addition to several plays, Sowerby wrote books of poetry and short stories for children, illustrated by her sister Millicent Sowerby. Her papers and memorabilia are in the collections at the Tyne and Wear Archives.

Life and career

Sowerby was born in 1876 in Gateshead, England, into the Sowerbys, a glass-making family. Her father, John G. Sowerby, was an artist and grandson of naturalist James Sowerby, and her mother was Amy Margaret Sowerby (née Hewison).{{cite book|editor-first=John|editor-last=Parker|contribution=Sowerby, Katherine Githa|title=Who's Who in the Theatre|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qyk_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA748|year=1922|publisher=Pitman|page=748}} Sowerby married John Kendall, and they had one daughter, Joan (1918-2013)Riley, Looking for Githa, Revised edition 2019

Rutherford & Son was a "sensation"Mark Brown, [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/aug/14/githa-sowerby-playwright-rutherford-son "Githa Sowerby, the forgotten playwright, returns to the stage"], Guardian, 14 August 2009 and a "massive success"BBC, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tyne/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8217000/8217927.stm "Tyneside honours forgotten writer"] (26 August 2009). in its 1912 London debut, running for 133 performances in London and 63 performances in New York. Literary critic Barrett Harper Clark, writing in 1915, declared it "among the most powerful works of the younger generation".{{cite book|author=Barrett Harper Clark|contribution=Githa Sowerby|title=The British and American Drama of To-day: Outlines for Their Study|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n60CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA154|year=1915|publisher=H. Holt|pages=154–155}} It was also produced in Canada and Australia, and translated into numerous other languages, including German, French, Italian, Russian, and Bohemian. Originally produced under the pen name "G. K. Sowerby", it was only later revealed that the author of the hit play was a woman; Sowerby then achieved instant celebrity. Sowerby's writing was compared to Henrik Ibsen's at that point, while known only by the gender-neutral initials "G. K."Rose Drew, [http://www.oneandother.com/articles/patricia-riley-on-playwright-githa-sowerby/ "Patricia Riley on Playwright Githa Sowerby"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130131014922/http://www.oneandother.com/articles/patricia-riley-on-playwright-githa-sowerby/ |date=31 January 2013 }}, One&Other: York, 11 December 2011.

Bibliography

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=Plays=

  • Rutherford and Son (1912, realist drama)
  • Before Breakfast (1912)
  • Jinny (1914)
  • A Man and Some Women (1914)
  • Sheila (1917)
  • The Stepmother (1924)
  • Direct Action (1937–78) (Sowerby's last play)

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=Children's books=

  • The Wise Book (1906)
  • The Bumbletoes (1907)
  • Childhood (1907)
  • The Merry Book (1908)
  • Yesterday's Children (1908)
  • The Happy Book (1909)
  • Grimm's Fairy Tales (retold) (1909)
  • Little Plays for Little People (1910)
  • Little Songs for Little People (1910)
  • My Birthday (1911)
  • Poems of Childhood (1912)
  • Little Plays for School and Home (1912)
  • The Pretty Book (1914)
  • Cinderella (1915)
  • The Gay Book (1915)
  • The Dainty Book (1915)
  • The Bright Book (1915)
  • The Bonny Book (1918)
  • The Glad Book (1921)

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Notes

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • {{cite book|last1=Riley|first1=Patricia|title=Looking for Githa|date=2009|publisher=New Writing North|isbn=978-0955882944|pages=1–156}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Riley|first1=Patricia|title=Looking for Githa|date=2019|publisher=Stairwell Books|isbn=978-1-939269-83-6|pages=1–239}}
  • {{Cite journal|last=Gainor|first=J. Ellen|date=2013|title=Rutherford and Son by Githa Sowerby, and: The Stepmother by Githa Sowerby (review)|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/534300|journal=Theatre Journal|language=en|volume=65|issue=4|pages=559–561|doi=10.1353/tj.2013.0103|s2cid=194016179|issn=1086-332X}} (Subscription required)
  • Stowell, S. (1994). [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/245753786 A stage of their own: Feminist playwrights of the suffrage era]. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan Press. p. 129–156.
  • Kevin De Ornellas, "Githa Sowerby". In Gabrielle H. Cody and Evert Sprinchorn, eds, The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, 2 volumes (Columbia University Press, 2007), volume 2, pp. 1265-66. {{ISBN|9780231140324}}.

External links

  • [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/02/2009_36_fri.shtml Woman's Hour] on BBC
  • [http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=sowegi "Githa Sowerby"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024153212/http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=sowegi |date=24 October 2020 }}, The Orlando Project
  • {{Internet Archive author|sname=Katherine Githa Sowerby}}
  • [https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/79/ A Man and Some Women: a play in three acts on Great War Theatre]

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1876 births

Category:1970 deaths

Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century English women writers

Category:English children's writers

Category:British women dramatists and playwrights

Category:English feminist writers

Category:Socialist feminists

Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers

Category:Pseudonymous women writers

Category:Members of the Fabian Society

Category:People from Gateshead

Category:Writers from Tyne and Wear