Mary Findlater

Mary Williamina Findlater (28 March 1865 – 22 November 1963) was a Scottish novelist and poet.

Mary Findlater
A young white woman with dark curly hair in an updo.
Mary Findlater, from a 1904 publication.
Born
Mary Williamina Findlater

28 March 1865
Lochearnhead
Died22 November 1963
St. Fillans
RelativesJane Findlater

Early life

Mary Williamina Findlater was born at Lochearnhead, Perthshire, the second daughter of the Rev. Eric John Thomson Findlater and Sarah Borthwick Findlater.[1] 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.[2] Writer Jane Findlater was her younger sister and lifelong collaborator.[3][4]

Cover of "Affair at the Inn" published in 1904 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
Cover of "Affair at the Inn" published in 1904 by Houghton, Mifflin and Company.

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.[5] They collaborated with American writer Kate Douglas Wiggin,[6] and were acquainted with Henry James, Ellen Terry, and Mary Chomondeley.[4] Their best-known and most widely admired collaboration is the novel Crossriggs (1908), re-issued in 1986 by Virago Press.[3][7][8] 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.[1][9]

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 built a house in Rye 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.[1] Her grave is in Comrie.[4]

Selected bibliography
  • Songs and Sonnets (1895)
  • Betty Musgrave (1899)[10]
  • A Narrow Way (1901)[11]
  • Tales that are Told (1901, with Jane Findlater)[12]
  • The Rose of Joy (1903)[13]
  • The Affair at the Inn (1904, with Jane Findlater, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Allan McAulay)[14]
  • A Blind Bird's Nest (1907)[15]
  • Crossriggs (1908, with Jane Findlater)[16]
  • Robinetta (1911, with Jane Findlater, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Allan McCaulay)[17]
  • Penny Monypenny (1911, with Jane Findlater)[18]
  • Tents of a Night (1914)[19]
  • Over the Hills (1897) ref-copy of book with copyright date of 1897.ref>"Laid in Bleak Setting". The Boston Globe. 14 March 1914. p. 4. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.</ref>[20]
  • Seen and Heard before and after 1914 (1916, with Jane Findlater)[21]
  • Content with Flies (1916, with Jane Findlater)[22]
  • Beneath the Visiting Moon (1923, with Jane Findlater)

References
  1. Miller, Jane Eldridge (2004). "Findlater, Mary Williamina (1865–1963), novelist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/58784. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 28 July 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Sarah Borthwick Findlater". Hymntime. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  3. "Mary and Jane Findlater". Scottish Women Writers on the Web. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  4. Whitmore, Rosemary. "The Findlater's". Rob Roy Country. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  5. "Author of 'The Rose of Joy'". The Pensacola News. 20 May 1905. p. 8. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Bright Books of Early Autumn". San Francisco Chronicle. 18 September 1904. p. 8. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Gifford, Douglas; McMillan, Dorothy (1997). A History of Scottish Women's Writing. ISBN 9780748609161. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctvxcrcvt.
  8. Nichols, Jeanne M. “Rediscovering the Novels of Mary and Jane Findlater” English Literature in Transition 37.3 (1994), pp. 285-301.
  9. "The Rose of Joy". The Indianapolis Journal. 9 November 1903. p. 4. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Findlater, Mary (1913). Betty Musgrave. New York: E. P. Dutton & company.
  11. Findlater, Mary (1901). A narrow way. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company.
  12. "Recent Novels". The Times. 10 August 1901. p. 8. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Findlater, Mary (1903). The rose of joy. Mc Clure, Phillips.
  14. Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith; Hearst, William Randolph; McAulay, Allan.; Findlater, Jane Helen; Findlater, Mary (1904). The affair at the inn. Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
  15. Findlater, Mary (1907). A blind bird's nest. London: Methuen.
  16. Findlater, Mary; Findlater, Jane Helen (1913). Crossriggs. Smith, Elder, & Company.
  17. Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith; Findlater, Jane Helen; Findlater, Mary (1911). Robinetta. Collection of British authors. Tauchnitz ed. ;v. 4266. Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz.
  18. Findlater, Mary; Findlater, Jane Helen (1911). Penny Monypenny. Smith, Elder.
  19. Findlater, Mary (1914). Tents of a night. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  20. "Over the Hills by Mary Findlater". Glasgow Herald. 11 November 1897. p. 10. Retrieved 28 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. Findlater, Mary; Findlater, Jane Helen (1916). Seen and heard: before and after 1914. London: Smith, Elder.
  22. Findlater, Mary; Findlater, Jane Helen (1916). Content with flies. London: Smith Elder.
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Mary Findlater
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