Gladys Skelton
Gladys Skelton (6 September 1885 – 29 September 1975) was an Australian and United Kingdom poet, novelist and playwright who wrote using the pseudonym John Presland.
Early life
[edit]Gladys Skelton was born Gladys Williams in Melbourne in 1885.[1]
Career
[edit]Skelton gained history honours at Girton College, Cambridge University and was a university lecturer in English literature and lecturer in history and economics.[2][3] She was one of a group of women writers who used a male pseudonym.[3] In 1928, after a charge by Lord Birkenhead that women writers were inferior, she wrote in their defence and of her use of a pseudonym.[4]
Personal life
[edit]In 1920 Skelton obtained a divorce from her husband John Herbert Skelton on the grounds of desertion and adultery but the decree nisi was rescinded in 1921.[5] Skelton married Francis Edmund Bendit in Hampstead in March 1943.[6]
She died in England in 1975.[1]
Selected works
[edit]Novels
[edit]- Frustration (1925)
- Dominion (1925) - based on the life of Cecil Rhodes
- Barricade (1926)
- Escape me - Never! (1929)[7]
- Mosaic (1929)
- The Charioteer (1930)
- Albatross (1931)[8]
Poetry
[edit]- The Deluge and Other Poems (1911)
- Songs of Changing Skies (1913)
- Poems of London and Other Verses (1918)
- The Shaken Reed (1943)
- Selected Poems (1961)
Plays
[edit]- The Marionettes (1907) - a puppet show[9]
- Joan of Arc (1909) - historical drama[9]
- Mary Queen of Scots (1910) - historical drama[9]
- Manin and the Defence of Venice (1911)[1]
- Marcus Aurelius (1912)[9]
- Belisarius, General of the East (1913)[9]
- King Monmouth (1916)[9]
- Satni (1929)[9]
Non-fiction
[edit]- Vae Victis: the life of Ludwig von Benedek, 1804-1881. (1934)
- Women in the civilized state (1934)
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Gladys Skelton". AusLit. Archived from the original on 18 August 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
- ^ "Author of a new novel". Illustrated London News: 14. 10 March 1928 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ a b "Women in the case". Staffordshire Sentinel. 18 November 1929. p. 6 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Sex and the Novelist. A Defence of the Woman Writer". Nottingham Evening Post. 16 March 1928. p. 7 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Decree Rescinded. Skelton v. Skelton". The Times (London). 10 May 1921. p. 4 – via Times Digital Archive.
- ^ "Marriages". The Times (London). 22 March 1943. p. 1 – via Times Digital Archive.
- ^ "For her Child's Sake". Leeds Mercury. 16 May 1928. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Airship Commander". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 23 September 1931. p. 6 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ a b c d e f g Nicoll, Allardyce (1973). English drama, 1900-1930; the beginnings of the modern period. Cambridge [England]: University Press. p. 894. ISBN 0-521-08416-4. OCLC 588815.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1885 births
- 1975 deaths
- 20th-century Australian novelists
- 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Australian women writers
- 20th-century Australian poets
- Australian women novelists
- Australian women dramatists and playwrights
- British women dramatists and playwrights
- Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom