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

Early life

Mary Williamina Findlater was born at

Lochearnhead Lochearnhead (Scottish Gaelic: Ceann Loch Èireann) is a village in Perthshire on the A84 road, A84 Stirling to Crianlarich road at the foot of Glen Ogle, north of the Highland Boundary Fault. It is situated at the western end of Loch Earn where ...

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

, the second daughter of the Rev. Eric John Thomson Findlater and Sarah Borthwick Findlater. Her father was a minister of the

Free Church of Scotland In contemporary usage, the Free Church of Scotland usually refers to: * Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), that portion of the original Free Church which remained outside the 1900 merger; extant It may also refer to: * Free Church of Scotland (1 ...

; 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. Writer

Jane Findlater Jane Helen Findlater (4 November 1866 – 20 May 1946) was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist whose first book, ''The Green Graves of Balgowrie'', started a successful literary career: for her sister Mary Findlater, Mary as well as ...

was her younger sister and lifelong collaborator. Affair at the Inn

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. They collaborated with American writer

Kate Douglas Wiggin Kate Douglas Wiggin (September 28, 1856August 24, 1923) was an American educator, author and composer. She wrote children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,'' and composed collections of children's ...

, and were acquainted with

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry (27 February 184721 July 1928) was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and toured ...

, and Mary Chomondeley. Their best-known and most widely admired collaboration is the novel ''Crossriggs'' (1908), re-issued in 1986 by

Virago Press Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British femin ...

. 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.

Personal life

Findlater moved with her mother and sisters to

Prestonpans Prestonpans ( , Scots: ''The Pans'') is a mining town, situated approximately eight miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the council area of East Lothian. The population as of is . It is near the site of the 1745 Battle of Prestonpans (first ...

after Rev. Findlater's death in 1886. They also lived in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, for their mother's health, and in 1925 built a house in

Rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

, Roundel Gate, Military Road, designed by

Horace Field Horace Field was a London-born architect. His work was often in a Wrenaissance style, as well as other post-gothic English historical revival styles, with influences from the Arts and Crafts movement and Richard Norman Shaw. His commissions inc ...

. They returned to Perthshire during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Mary Findlater lived all her life with her sister Jane, until Jane died in 1946. Mary Findlater died in 1963, at St. Fillans. Her grave is in

Comrie Comrie may refer to: Places *Comrie (crater), a lunar crater *Comrie, Fife, a village in Fife, Scotland *Comrie, Perth and Kinross, a village and parish in Strathearn, Scotland People with the surname

*Aaron Comrie (born 1997), Scottish footba ...

Selected bibliography

* ''Songs and Sonnets'' (1895) * ''Over the Hills'' (1897) * ''Betty Musgrave'' (1899) * ''A Narrow Way'' (1901) * ''Tales that are Told'' (1901, with Jane Findlater) * ''The Rose of Joy'' (1903) * ''The Affair at the Inn'' (1904, with Jane Findlater, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Allan McAulay) * ''A Blind Bird's Nest'' (1907) * ''Crossriggs'' (1908, with Jane Findlater) * ''Robinetta'' (1911, with Jane Findlater, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Allan McAulay) * ''Penny Monypenny'' (1911, with Jane Findlater) * ''Tents of a Night'' (1914) * ''Seen and Heard Before and After 1914'' (1916, with Jane Findlater) * ''Content with Flies'' (1916, with Jane Findlater) * ''Beneath the Visiting Moon'' (1923, with Jane Findlater)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Findlater, Mary 1865 births Scottish women novelists 1963 deaths 20th-century Scottish novelists 20th-century Scottish women writers