Kathleen Elsie "Kay" Dick (29 July 1915 – 19 October 2001) was an English journalist, writer, novelist and autobiographer, who sometimes wrote under the name Edward Lane De-la-Noy, Michael (24 October 2001)
"Kay Dick"
(obituary), ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. and Jeremy Scott. She was called "the first woman director in English publishing" and she is celebrated for her dystopian "lost" novel, ''They''.

Life

Dick was born Kathleen Elsie at

Queen Charlotte's Hospital Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital is one of the oldest maternity hospitals in Europe, founded in 1739 in London. Until October 2000, it occupied sites in Marylebone Road and at 339–351 Goldhawk Road, Hammersmith, but is now located betwe ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

; her father was never known. She was raised in Switzerland by her mother, Kate Frances Dick, being educated in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, as well as at the

Lycée Français The Agency for French Education Abroad, or Agency for French Teaching Abroad, (; AEFE), is a national public agency under the administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France that assures the quality of schools teaching the French nati ...

in London. Her mother married a man named Paul Erick Dick when she was seven and he adopted her and she took his surname. In early life, Kay Dick worked at Foyle's bookshop in London's

Charing Cross Road Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street), which then merges into Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direc ...

and, at 26, became the first woman director in English publishing at P.S. King & Son. She later became a journalist, working at the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

''. For many years, she edited the literary magazine '' The Windmill'', under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Edward Lane. Dick wrote five novels between 1949 and 1962, including the famous ''An Affair of Love'' (1953) and ''Solitaire'' (1958). She also wrote

literary biography When studying literature, biography and its relationship to literature is often a subject of literary criticism, and is treated in several different forms. Two scholarly approaches use biography or biographical approaches to the past as a tool for ...

, researching the lives of

Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known as Colette or Colette Willy, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a Mime artist, mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaki ...

and Carlyle. In 1960 she published ''Pierrot'', about the ''

commedia dell'arte Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...

''. Dick was a regular reviewer for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' and '' Punch'', but the work dropped off as she failed to meet deadlines. Dick also edited several anthologies of stories and interviews with writers, including ''Ivy and Stevie'' (1971) and ''Friends and Friendship'' (1974). She was known for campaigning tirelessly and successfully for the introduction of the

Public Lending Right A public lending right (PLR) is a program intended to either compensate authors for the potential loss of sales from their works being available in public libraries or as a governmental support of the arts, through support of works available in pu ...

, which pays

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

to authors when their books are borrowed from public libraries. In 1977, Dick published ''They'',Hall, Duncan (21 November 2014)
"Writer Graham Duff on Kay Dick's work of science fiction"
''The Argus''. a series of dream sequences that won the South-East Arts literature prize, and was described in ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

'' in 2020 as "a lost dystopian masterpiece". It had remained out of print due to poor sales and Dick experiencing harsh and sexist reviews in the press at the time of the award win. ''They'' was re-discovered by chance in an

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

charity bookshop in

Bath, Somerset Bath (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, Bristol, River A ...

, in the summer of 2020 by a literary agent. It was then acquired by Faber and Faber for re-release on 3 February 2022 in the United Kingdom and MacNally Editions in the United States. In 1984 she followed the publication of ''They'' with an acclaimed autobiographical novel, ''The Shelf'', in which she examined a lesbian affair. Dick lived for some two decades with the novelist Kathleen Farrell, from 1940 to 1962. She died from lung cancer at a nursing home in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, in 2001. She had a somewhat caustic obituary in the Guardian by Michael De-la-Noy, whom she had helped early in his career.

Legacy

Dick's dystopian novel ''They'' was "rediscovered" in 2022 and it was celebrated with an event at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

as part of

LGBT History Month LGBTQ History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher ...

. She was credited as "the first woman director in English publishing".

Bibliography

*''By The Lake'' (1949) *''Young Man'' (1951) *''An Affair of Love'' (1953) *''Solitaire'' (1958) *''Pierrot'' (1960) *''Sunday'' (1962) *''Ivy & Stevie'' (1971), about

Ivy Compton-Burnett Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, (; 5 June 188427 August 1969) was an English novelist, published in the original editions as I. Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel ''Mother and Son''. Her works co ...

and

Stevie Smith Florence Margaret Smith (20 September 1902 – 7 March 1971), known as Stevie Smith, was an English poet and novelist. She won the Cholmondeley Award and was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. A play, '' Stevie'' by Hugh Whitemore, bas ...

*''Friends & Friendship'' (1974) *''They'' (1977) *''The Shelf'' (1984)

References

External links

* Michael De-la-Noy
"Kay Dick" (obituary)
''The Guardian'', 24 October 2001. Michael Ratcliffe,

Roy Greenslade Roy Greenslade (born 31 December 1946) is a British author and freelance journalist, and a former professor of journalism. He worked in the UK newspaper industry from the 1960s onwards. As a media commentator, he wrote a daily blog from 2006 to ...

"Letters"
''The Guardian'', 25 October 2001.
Kay Dick's executors' website

Kay Dick photograph by John Vere Brown

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

. *
Jeremy Scott
at LC Authorities, with 3 records, an
at WorldCat

"Kay Dick: A Preliminary Inventory of an Addition to Her Papers at the Harry Ransom Center"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dick, Kay 1915 births 2001 deaths 20th-century English biographers 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English short story writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century pseudonymous writers Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford British anthologists English autobiographers English expatriates in Switzerland English journalists English science fiction writers English short story writers People from Hammersmith People educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle Pseudonymous women writers British women anthologists Writers from Geneva Writers from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham