Mary Findlater
{{Short description|Scottish novelist and poet (1865–1963)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mary Findlater
| image = MaryFindlater1904.png
| alt = A young white woman with dark curly hair in an updo.
| caption = Mary Findlater, from a 1904 publication.
| birth_name = Mary Williamina Findlater
| birth_date = March 28, 1865
| birth_place = Lochearnhead
| death_date = {{death date and age|1963|11|22|1865|3|28}}
| death_place = St. Fillans
| relatives = Jane Findlater
}}
Mary Williamina Findlater (28 March 1865 – 22 November 1963) was a Scottish novelist and poet.
Early life
Mary Williamina Findlater was born at Lochearnhead, Perthshire, the second daughter of the Rev. Eric John Thomson Findlater and Sarah Borthwick Findlater.{{Cite ODNB|last=Miller|first=Jane Eldridge|title=Findlater, Mary Williamina (1865–1963), novelist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-58784|access-date=2020-07-28|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/58784|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}} Her father was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland; he died in 1886. Her mother worked with her own sister, Jane Borthwick, to compile Hymns from the Land of Luther (1855), a book of translated German-language hymns, before she married.{{Cite web|title=Sarah Borthwick Findlater|url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/f/i/n/findlater_sb.htm|access-date=2020-07-28|website=Hymntime}} Writer Jane Findlater was her younger sister and lifelong collaborator.{{Cite web|title=Mary and Jane Findlater|url=https://www.scottishwomenwritersontheweb.net/mary-and-jane-findlater-1|access-date=2020-07-28|website=Scottish Women Writers on the Web|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Whitmore|first=Rosemary|title=The Findlater's|url=http://www.robroycountry.com/history/head-teacher-balquhidder-primary/14-history-and-heritage/150-the-findlater-s-lochearnhead.html|access-date=2020-07-28|website=Rob Roy Country}}
Career
Findlater wrote novels and poetry both alone and together with her sister Jane. The sisters made two literary tours of the United States one in 1905.{{Cite news|date=1905-05-20|title=Author of 'The Rose of Joy'|pages=8|work=The Pensacola News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56264597/author-of-the-rose-of-joy/|access-date=2020-07-28|via=Newspapers.com}} They collaborated with American writer Kate Douglas Wiggin,{{Cite news|date=1904-09-18|title=Bright Books of Early Autumn|pages=8|work=San Francisco Chronicle|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56262920/bright-books-of-early-autumn/|access-date=2020-07-28|via=Newspapers.com}} and were acquainted with Henry James, Ellen Terry, and Mary Chomondeley. Their best-known and most widely admired collaboration is the novel Crossriggs (1908), re-issued in 1986 by Virago Press.{{Cite book|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctvxcrcvt|jstor=10.3366/j.ctvxcrcvt|title=A History of Scottish Women's Writing|year=1997|isbn=9780748609161|last1=Gifford|first1=Douglas|last2=McMillan|first2=Dorothy|author2-link=Dorothy McMillan}}Nichols, Jeanne M. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/373834 “Rediscovering the Novels of Mary and Jane Findlater”] English Literature in Transition 37.3 (1994), pp. 285-301. Her heroines are "surprisingly modern", often rejecting the expected path of marriage and motherhood, and preferring female companionship, care responsibilities, or a life in the arts.{{Cite news|date=1903-11-09|title=The Rose of Joy|pages=4|work=The Indianapolis Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56264735/the-rose-of-joy/|access-date=2020-07-28|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Findlater moved with her mother and sisters to Prestonpans after Rev. Findlater's death in 1886. They also lived in Devon, for their mother's health, and in 1925 built a house in Rye, Roundel Gate, Military Road, designed by Horace Field.{{cite book |last1=Mackenzie |first1=Eileen |title=The Findlater Sisters |date=1964 |publisher=John Murray |location=London}} They returned to Perthshire during World War II. Mary Findlater lived all her life with her sister Jane, until Jane died in 1946. Mary Findlater died in 1963, at St. Fillans. Her grave is in Comrie.
Selected bibliography
- Songs and Sonnets (1895)
- Over the Hills (1897){{Cite news|date=1914-03-14|title=Laid in Bleak Setting|pages=4|work=The Boston Globe|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56263822/laid-in-bleak-setting/|access-date=2020-07-28|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1897-11-11|title=Over the Hills by Mary Findlater|pages=10|work=Glasgow Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56264237/over-the-hills-by-mary-findlater/|access-date=2020-07-28|via=Newspapers.com}}
- Betty Musgrave (1899){{Cite book|last=Findlater|first=Mary|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007658760|title=Betty Musgrave|date=1913|publisher=E. P. Dutton & company|location=New York}}
- A Narrow Way (1901){{Cite book|last=Findlater|first=Mary|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102716856|title=A narrow way|date=1901|publisher=E.P. Dutton & Company|location=New York}}
- Tales that are Told (1901, with Jane Findlater){{Cite news|date=1901-08-10|title=Recent Novels|pages=8|work=The Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56264037/recent-novels/|access-date=2020-07-28|via=Newspapers.com}}
- The Rose of Joy (1903){{Cite book|last=Findlater|first=Mary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yqU9AQAAIAAJ|title=The rose of joy|date=1903|publisher=Mc Clure, Phillips|language=en}}
- The Affair at the Inn (1904, with Jane Findlater, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Allan McAulay){{Cite book|last1=Wiggin|first1=Kate Douglas Smith|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000168360|title=The affair at the inn|last2=Hearst|first2=William Randolph|last3=McAulay|first3=Allan.|last4=Findlater|first4=Jane Helen|last5=Findlater|first5=Mary|date=1904|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin and Company|location=Boston, New York}}
- A Blind Bird's Nest (1907){{Cite book|last=Findlater|first=Mary|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008665384|title=A blind bird's nest|date=1907|publisher=Methuen|location=London}}
- Crossriggs (1908, with Jane Findlater){{Cite book|last1=Findlater|first1=Mary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shcNAAAAYAAJ|title=Crossriggs|last2=Findlater|first2=Jane Helen|date=1913|publisher=Smith, Elder, & Company|language=en}}
- Robinetta (1911, with Jane Findlater, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Allan McAulay){{Cite book|last1=Wiggin|first1=Kate Douglas Smith|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012445621|title=Robinetta|last2=Findlater|first2=Jane Helen|last3=Findlater|first3=Mary|date=1911|publisher=B. Tauchnitz|series=Collection of British authors. Tauchnitz ed. ;v. 4266|location=Leipzig}}
- Penny Monypenny (1911, with Jane Findlater){{Cite book|last1=Findlater|first1=Mary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZIOAAAAIAAJ|title=Penny Monypenny|last2=Findlater|first2=Jane Helen|date=1911|publisher=Smith, Elder|language=en}}
- Tents of a Night (1914){{Cite book|last=Findlater|first=Mary|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102739623|title=Tents of a night|date=1914|publisher=Smith, Elder & Co.|location=London}}
- Seen and Heard Before and After 1914 (1916, with Jane Findlater){{Cite book|last1=Findlater|first1=Mary|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008917466|title=Seen and heard: before and after 1914|last2=Findlater|first2=Jane Helen|date=1916|publisher=Smith, Elder|location=London}}
- Content with Flies (1916, with Jane Findlater){{Cite book|last1=Findlater|first1=Mary|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006583149|title=Content with flies|last2=Findlater|first2=Jane Helen|date=1916|publisher=Smith Elder|location=London}}
- Beneath the Visiting Moon (1923, with Jane Findlater)
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=117209777}}
External links
- {{Gutenberg author | id=34361| name=Mary Findlater}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Mary Williamina Findlater}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Findlater, Mary}}
Category:Scottish women novelists