Helen Prothero-Lewis

Helen Prothero-Lewis (15 June 1853[1] – 7 August 1946) was a Welsh writer.

Helen Prothero-Lewis
An older white woman with white hair, seated, photographed in profile; she is wearing a white lacy shawl
Helen Prothero-Lewis, from a 1925 publication
Born15 June 1853
Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire
Died7 August 1946 (age 93)
Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire
Other namesHelen Prothero Pugh
OccupationWriter

Early life and education

Prothero-Lewis was born in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, the daughter of solicitor John Prothero Lewis and Frances Elizabeth Shipley Lewis. Her brother R. Shipley Lewis was also a solicitor in Llandeilo.[2]

Career

Prothero-Lewis wrote twenty-one novels, mostly romances set in Wales, between 1890 and 1928.[3] She also wrote short stories and poems for periodicals including The Girl's Own Paper.[4] Three of her novels were adapted into silent films: As God Made Her (1920), The Silver Bridge (1920),[5] and Love and the Whirlwind (1922).

Prothero-Lewis was considered a reliable and talented novelist in her genre. "Sometimes there are sentences, bits of description, in the romances of the country-side, which make one think that, had she been less normal, less conventional, the authoress might have written something in the vein of Wuthering Heights," wrote Mary Webb in The Bookman in 1925, pointing to some "macabre touches" and "two dark, wild brothers" in The Hills Beyond.[6]

Publications
  • "The Vail of Llangollen" (poem, 1886, The Red Dragon)[7]
  • "An Unhappy Bachelor" (story 1890, The Girl's Own Paper)
  • Her Heart's Desire (1890)
  • A Lady of My Own (1891)[8]
  • Hooks of Steel (1894)[9]
  • Thraldom (1903)[10]
  • Tobias and the Angel (1906)
  • The Unguarded Taper (1906)[11]
  • "A Happy Chance" (story, 1906, The Girl's Own Paper)
  • "What the Wind Did" (story, 1907, The Girl's Own Paper)
  • "His Own Particular Rose" (story, 1908, The Girl's Own Paper)
  • Adventures of Armine de Lancy (1910)
  • The Silent Shore (1921)[12]
  • The Hills Beyond (1925)[6]
  • Like Any Other Man (1923)[13]
  • The Heart of the Offender (1924)[14]
  • A Woman in the Making (1926)[15]
  • Henrietta (1928)[16]

Personal life

Prothero-Lewis married solicitor James Jacob George Pugh in 1895, and the couple lived in Twickenham. Her husband died in 1904, and she died in 1946, at the age of 93, in Llandeilo, a few weeks after her last surviving sibling, Agnes.[17]

References
  1. Prothero-Lewis appears as a 17-year-old in the 1871 census, and as a 37-year-old in the 1891 census, which both match the 1853 birthdate on her grave marker in Forest Lawn. Some sources give 1862 as her birthdate, including Troy J. Bassett, "Author: Helen Prothero Lewis", At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901.
  2. "Death of Mr. R. Shipley Lewis, Notable Llandilo Solicitor". The Welshman and General Advertiser for the Principality of Wales. 1927-02-18. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-08-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Helen Prothero-Lewis". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
  4. "Stories by Helen Prothero Lewis". The Girl's Own Paper Index. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
  5. Young, R. G. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 569. ISBN 978-1-55783-269-6.
  6. Webb, Mary. "The Bookman Gallery: Helen Prothero Lewis" The Bookman 69(410)(November 1925): 111.
  7. Lewis, Helen Prothero (1886). "The Vail of Llangollen". The Red Dragon: The National Magazine of Wales. 10: 506.
  8. "A Review". The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser. 6 November 1891. p. 3. Retrieved August 25, 2023 – via Welsh Newspapers, via The National Library of Wales.
  9. Lewis, Helen Prothero (1894). Hooks of steel. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. London : Hutchinson.
  10. Lewis, Helen Prothero (1903). Thraldom. John Long.
  11. "A Spiritual Novel". Light. 26: 377. 11 August 1906.
  12. "Social and Personal". Western Mail. 1921-09-17. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-08-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Lewis, Helen Prothero (1923). Like Any Other Man. Hutchinson.
  14. "Books to Buy and Books to Keep". T. P.'s and Cassell's Weekly (16): 582. February 9, 1924.
  15. "A Woman in the Making (review)". The Bookman. 71: 78. Autumn 1926 – via Internet Archive.
  16. "Notes on Recent Books". The Bookman. 75 (445): 28. October 1928 – via Internet Archive.
  17. "Obituary: Miss Agnes Anne Lewis". Western Mail. 1943-06-01. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-08-26 – via Newspapers.com.
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