Marjorie Bowen
Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long (née Campbell; 1 November 1885 – 23 December 1952), who used the pseudonyms Marjorie Bowen and Joseph Shearing, was a British author who wrote historical romances, supernatural horror stories, popular history and biography. Life. Bowen was born in 1885 on Hayling Island in Hampshire. She had a difficult childhood; her alcoholic father Vere Douglas Campbell left the family at an early stage and was eventually found dead on a London street. She and her sister grew up in poverty with a less than affectionate mother. Bowen studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and  later in Paris. Her first fiction was a violent historical novel, "The Viper of Milan" (written when she was 16), set in medieval Italy. "The Viper of Milan" was rejected by several publishers, who considered it inappropriate for a young woman to have written such a novel. It went on to become a best-seller when eventually published. After this, Bowen's prolific writings were the chief financial support for her family. She was married twice: first, from 1912 to 1916, to a Sicilian, Zefferino Emilio Constanza, who died of tuberculosis, 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. Her son with Long, Athelstan Charles Ethelwulf Long, was a colonial administrator. In 1938, Bowen was one of the signatories to a petition organised by the National Peace Council, calling for an international peace conference in an effort to avert war in Europe. In an interview for "Twentieth Century Authors", she listed her hobbies as "painting, needlework and reading". Her cousin was the artist Nora Molly Campbell 1888-1971. Bowen died on 23 December 1952 at the St Charles Hospital in Kensington, London  after suffering serious concussion as a result of a fall in her bedroom. Her son Athelstan Charles Ethelwulf Long was a colonial administrator. Work. Her total output numbers over 150 volumes with the bulk of her work under the 'Bowen' pseudonym. She also wrote under the names Joseph Shearing, George R. Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye and Margaret Campbell. After "The Viper of Milan" (1906), she produced a steady stream of writings until the day of her death. Bowen's work under her own name was primarily historical novels. Bowen crafted a trilogy of historical novels about King William III . The novels are "I Will Maintain" (1910), "Defender of the Faith" (1911), and "God and the King" (1911). The 1909 novel "Black Magic" is a Gothic horror novel about a medieval witch." Bowen also wrote non-fiction history books aimed at a popular readership. Under the pseudonym "Joseph Shearing", Bowen wrote several mystery novels inspired by true-life crimes. For instance, "For Her to See" (1947, AKA "So Evil My Love") is a fictionalised version of the Charles Bravo murder. The Shearing novels were especially popular in the United States, "Moss Rose", "The Golden Violet" and "Forget-Me-Not" achieving  both critical and commercial success, being championed by reviewers such as Phil Stong. Until the late 1940s, the true identity of Shearing was not known to the general public, and some speculated it was the pseudonym of F. Tennyson Jesse. Under the "George R. Preedy" pseudonym, she wrote two non-supernatural horror novels, "Dr. Chaos" and "The Devil Snar'd". Her last, posthumous, novel was "The Man with the Scales (1954)"; it is about a man obsessed with revenge, and contains supernatural elements reminiscent of E. T. A. Hoffmann. Many of these stories were published as Berkley 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 by Michael Sadleir) and the posthumous "Kecksies", edited for Arkham House in the late 1940s, but not actually published until 1976. Critical reception. Bowen's books are much sought after by aficionados of gothic horror and received praise from critics. Graham Greene stated in his "Paris 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." Horror reviewer Robert Hadji described Bowen as "one of the great supernatural writers of this century". Fritz Leiber referred to "Marjorie Bowen's brilliant "Black Magic"". Jessica Amanda Salmonson, discussing "The 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". Sally Benson in "The New Yorker", discussing  the "Joseph Shearing" books: "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". Reviewing "The Crime of Laura Sarelle" Will 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". In an article about women writers, the Australian newspaper "The Courier-Mail" described Bowen as "one of the best of  our modern novelists".Sheldon Jaffery stated that Bowen's "weird fiction ranks favorably with such distaff portrayers of the supernatural as Mary Wilkins-Freeman, Edith Wharton and Lady Cynthia Asquith." By contrast, Colin Wilson's view of Bowen's work was negative: in a review of "A Sort of Life" by Grahame Greene, Wilson dismissed Bowen as a writer of "bad adventure stories".