Marjorie Olive Whitaker, ''née'' Taylor (23 September 1895, Bradford – 7 January 1976,

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River A ...

), better known under her pseudonym Malachi Whitaker, was an English writer, noted for her short stories and an autobiography. She wrote nearly 100 stories published in four collections by

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in the 1920s and 1930s. Her talent was recognized by contemporaries:

Vita Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...

compared her to

Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebr ...

, and she was known as the ' Bradford

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career a ...

'. Following the publication of her memoir ''And so did I'' in 1939, she announced her retirement from writing.Clare L. Taylor
‘Whitaker , Marjorie Olive (1895–1976)’
''

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'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 25 June 2009

Biography

Whitaker was born in 1895 in Bradford, the eighth of eleven children. She left school when she was 13, and worked for her father in writing

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s for his bookbinding works. She married Leonard Whitaker in 1917, and the couple adopted two children.

Works

;Short Stories * Frost in April (1929) * No Luggage? (1930) * Five for Silver (1932) * Honeymoon and Other Stories (1934) * Selected Stories (1946) * The Crystal Fountain and Other Stories (1984) * The Journey Home and Other Stories (2017) ;Memoirs * And so did I (1939) ;Humor * The Autobiography of Ethel Firebrace (1937) (written pseudonymously with Gay Taylor)

References

;Notes ;Sources *'Malachi Whitaker: Writer of short stories', ''

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'', 27 January 1976 {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Marjorie 1895 births 1976 deaths 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English memoirists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Writers from Bradford English short story writers British women short story writers British women memoirists Pseudonymous women writers