Mary Stewart

This article is about the novelist. For other people of the same name, see Mary Stuart (disambiguation).

Mary Stewart
Born	Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow September 17, 1916 (1916-09-17) (age 95) Sunderland, County Durham, England
Nationality	English
Ethnicity	English
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Alma mater	Durham University
Occupation	Novelist
Spouse	Sir Frederick Stewart

Mary Florence Elinor Stewart (née Rainbow; born 17 September 1916)^[1][2] is a popular English novelist, best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and the fantasy genre.

Career

Stewart was born in Sunderland, County Durham, England and graduated from Durham University, from where she received an honorary D.Litt in 2009.^[3] She was a lecturer in English Language and Literature there until her marriage in 1945 to Sir Frederick Stewart, former chairman of the Geology Department of Edinburgh University.^[4] Sir Frederick died in 2001.^[5]

Stewart is the bestselling author of many romantic suspense and historical fiction novels, which were well received by critics due to her skillful story telling and enchanting prose. Her novels are also known for their well-crafted settings, many in England but also in such exotic locations as Damascus and the Greek islands, as well as Spain, France, Austria, etc.^[6]

She was at the height of her popularity in the 1960s and 1970s when many of her novels were translated into many languages; The Moon-Spinners was also made into a movie. Stewart is considered one of the founders of the romantic suspense subgenre^{[citation needed]}, blending romance novels and mystery. She seamlessly combined the two genres, maintaining a full mystery while focusing on the courtship between two people,^[7] so that the process of solving the mystery "helps to illuminate" the hero's personality - thereby helping the heroine to fall in love with him.^[8]

Following the success of T. H. White's The Once and Future King, and the connection of the Kennedy presidency with "Camelot", Arthurian legends regained popularity. Mary Stewart added to this climate by publishing The Crystal Cave, the first in what was to become a five-book series later dubbed The Merlin Chronicles. It placed Lady Stewart on the best seller list many times throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Bibliography

The Merlin Series

Further information: Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy

1. The Crystal Cave (1970)
2. The Hollow Hills (1973)
3. The Last Enchantment (1979)
4. The Wicked Day (1983)
5. The Prince and the Pilgrim (1995)

Others

• Madam, Will You Talk? (1954)
• Wildfire at Midnight (1956)
• Thunder on the Right (1957)
• Nine Coaches Waiting (1958)
• My Brother Michael (1959)
• The Ivy Tree (1961)
• The Moon-Spinners (1962)
• This Rough Magic (1964)
• Airs Above the Ground (1965)
• The Gabriel Hounds (1967)
• The Wind Off the Small Isles (1968)
• The Little Broomstick (1971) (children's novel)
• Ludo and the Star Horse (1974) (children's novel)
• Touch Not the Cat (1976)
• A Walk in Wolf Wood (1980) (children's novel)
• Thornyhold (1988)
• Frost on the Window: And other Poems (1990) (poetry collection)
• Stormy Petrel (1991)
• Rose Cottage (1997)

Notes

1. ^ Telegraph (accessed 28 May 2007)
2. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica Student Encyclopedia (accessed 28 May 2007)
3. ^ Durham University Honorary Degrees
4. ^ Author biography in the 1988 paperback edition of her novel, Thornyhold
5. ^ The Guardian (accessed 28 May 2007)
6. ^ Contemporary Literary Criticism, v. 35. Gale Research Company, 1985.
7. ^ Regis (2003), pp. 143, 144.
8. ^ Regis (2003), p. 146.

References

• Regis, Pamela (2003), A Natural History of the Romance Novel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 0812233034 

External links

• University of Rochester. "Interview with Mary Stewart" 1989. From Interviews with Authors of Modern Arthurian Literature.

• Mary Stewart at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Persondata
Name	Stewart, Mary
Alternative names
Short description	English Novelist
Date of birth	17 September 1916
Place of birth	Sunderland, County Durham, England
Date of death
Place of death