Wikipedia

Mary Webb

For other uses, seeMary Webb (disambiguation).

Mary Gladys Webb(25 March 1881 – 8 October 1927) was an Englishromance novelistand poet of the early 20th century, whose work is set chiefly in theShropshirecountryside and among Shropshire characters and people whom she knew. Her novels have been successfully dramatized, most notably the filmGone to Earthin 1950 byMichael PowellandEmeric Pressburgerbased on thenovel of the same title.The novels are thought to have inspired the famous parodyCold Comfort Farm(1932) byStella Gibbons.

Mary Webb
Portrait of Mary Webb
Born
Mary Gladys Meredith

15 March 1881
Leighton,Shropshire,England
Died8 October 1927(1927-10-08)(aged 46)
St Leonards-on-Sea,England
Occupation(s)Novelist, poet
Known forAuthor ofPrecious Bane,Gone to Earth

Life

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She was born Mary Gladys Meredith in 1881 at Leighton Lodge in theShropshirevillage ofLeighton,where she was baptised atSt Mary's parish church,[1]8 miles (13 km) southeast ofShrewsbury.Her father, George Edward Meredith, a private schoolteacher,[2]inspired his daughter with his own love of literature and the local countryside. Her mother, Sarah Alice, was descended from a family related to Scottish author and poetSir Walter Scott.Mary explored the countryside around her childhood home, and developed a sense of detailed observation and description, of both people and places, which later infused her poetry and prose.

At the age of one year, she moved with her parents toMuch Wenlock,where they lived at a house called The Grange outside the town. Mary was taught by her father, then sent to afinishing schoolfor girls atSouthportin 1895.[2]Webb became avegetarianas a child and loathed the slaughter of animals.[3]Her parents moved the family again in Shropshire, north toStanton upon Hine Heathin 1896, before settling in 1902 atMeole Brace,now on the outskirts ofShrewsbury.[2]It was at Stanton she began writing poems and articles for the local parish magazine.[4]

At the age of 20, she developed symptoms ofGraves' disease,athyroiddisorder that resulted in bulging protuberant eyes and throatgoitre.It caused ill health throughout her life and probably contributed to her early death. This affliction resulted in her being empathic with the suffering. She is considered to have created a fictional counterpart in the disfiguringharelipof Prue Sarn, the heroine ofPrecious Bane.

Webb's first published writing was a five-verse poem, written on hearing news of theShrewsbury rail accidentin October 1907. Her brother, Kenneth Meredith, so liked the poem and thought it potentially comforting for those affected by the disaster that, without her knowledge, he took it to the newspaper offices of theShrewsbury Chronicle,which printed the poem anonymously. Mary, who usually burnt her early poems, was appalled before learning that the newspaper had received appreciative letters from its readers.[5][better source needed]

On 12 June 1912, Webb married Henry Bertram Law Webb (1885-1939), a teacher, at Meole Brace's Holy Trinity parish church. At first he supported her literary interests. They lived for a time inWeston-super-Mare,before moving back to Mary's beloved Shropshire, where they worked asmarket gardenersuntil Henry secured a job as a teacher, first atChester,then at thePriory Grammar School for Boysin Shrewsbury.[6]

The couple lived briefly in Rose Cottage in Hinton Lane and then at The Nills[7]in the village ofPontesburybetween the years 1914 and 1916, during which time she wroteThe Golden Arrow.[8]Her time in the village is celebrated by the eponymously namedMary Webb School and Science College.[9]

The publication ofThe Golden Arrowin 1917 enabled them to move toLyth Hill,Bayston Hill,a place she loved, where they bought a plot of land and built Spring Cottage.[10]

Mary Webb Grave, Longden Road cemetery, Shrewsbury.

In 1921, they bought a second property atHampstead Grovein London, in the hope that by being in the city, she could achieve greater literary recognition. This, however, did not happen, although she won thePrix Femina Vie HeureuseforPrecious Banein 1926. By 1927, she was suffering increasingly bad health, her marriage was failing, and she returned to Spring Cottage alone. She died atSt Leonards-on-Sea,aged 46. She was buried in Shrewsbury, at the General Cemetery in Longden Road.[11]

Legacy

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Her writing in general was reviewed as notable for poetic descriptions of nature. Another aspect throughout her work was a close and fatalistic view on human psychology.[12]

After her death, Prime MinisterStanley Baldwinbrought about her commercial success when, at a dinner of theRoyal Literary Fundin 1928, he referred to her as a neglected genius. Consequently her collected works were republished in a standard edition byJonathan Cape,becoming best sellers in the 1930s and running into many editions.[13]

Stella Gibbons's 1932 novelCold Comfort Farmwas a parody of Webb's work,[14]as well as of other "loam and lovechild" writers likeSheila Kaye-SmithandMary E. Mann[15]and, further back,Thomas Hardy.In a 1966Puncharticle, Gibbons observed:

The large agonised faces in Mary Webb's book annoyed me... I did not believe people were any more despairing in Herefordshire[sic]than inCamden Town.

Literary criticJohn Sutherlandrefers to the genre as the "soil and gloom romance" and credits Webb as its pioneer.[16]

The museum at the Tourist Information Centre inMuch Wenlockincludes much information on Mary Webb, including a display of photographs of thefilming of her novelGone to Earthin 1950.

Her cottage on Lyth Hill (not open to the public) can still be seen. In September 2013, plans were submitted for its demolition.[17]

Three of Webb's novels have been reprinted byVirago Press.[12]

Bibliography

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Library resourcesabout
Mary Webb
By Mary Webb
  • The Golden Arrow(July 1916). London: Constable.
  • Gone to Earth(September 1917). London: Constable.
  • The Spring of Joy; a little book of healing(October 1917). London:J. M. Dent.
  • The House in Dormer Forest(July 1920). London:Hutchinson.
  • Seven for a Secret(October 1922). London: Hutchinson.
  • Precious Bane(July 1924). London:Jonathan Cape.
  • Poems and the Spring of Joy (Essays and Poems)(1928). London: Jonathan Cape.
  • Armour Wherein He Trusted: A Novel and Some Stories(1929). London: Jonathan Cape.
  • A Mary Webb Anthologyedited by Henry B.L. Webb (1939). London: Jonathan Cape.
  • Fifty-One Poems(1946). London: Jonathan Cape. With wood engravings byJoan Hassall
  • The Essential Mary Webbedited byMartin Armstrong(1949). London: Jonathan Cape.
  • Mary Webb: Collected Prose and Poemsedited by Gladys Mary Coles (1977). Shrewsbury: Wildings.
  • Selected Poems of Mary Webbedited by Gladys Mary Coles (1981). Wirral: Headland

Biographies

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  • The Shropshire of Mary Webbby W. Reid. Chappell (1930). London: Cecil Palmer
  • The Shropshire Haunts of Mary Webbby W. Byford-Jones (1948). Shrewsbury: Wilding and Son
  • The Flower of Light: A Biography of Mary Webbby Gladys Mary Coles (1978). London:Duckworth & Co Ltd); (1998). Wirral: Headland Publications
  • Mary Webb: A Narrative Bibliography of Her Life and Workby Gordon Dickins (1981). –: –
  • Daughters and Lovers: The Life and Writing of Mary Webbby Michèle Aina Barale (1986). Connecticut:Wesleyan University Press
  • Mary Webb Country: An Introduction to Her Life and Workby Linda Davies (1990). Wirral: Palmers Press
  • Best Day of My Life: Mary Meredith (Young Mary Webb) at Much Wenlockby Kenneth Milner (1999). –: Dormer
  • Lullingford: Mary Webb's Much Wenlockby Kenneth Milner (2004). –: –

Adaptations

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Gone to Earth

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Precious Bane

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Memorials

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A monumental bust of Mary Webb, commissioned by the Mary Webb Society, was unveiled in the grounds ofShrewsbury Libraryon 9 July 2016.[22]

Ablue plaqueto commemorate her birth was unveiled by the Mary Webb Society at Leighton Lodge in March 2022.[23]

References

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  1. ^Dickins, Gordon (1987).An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire.Shropshire Libraries. pp. 74, 99.ISBN0-903802-37-6.
  2. ^abcDickins, Gordon (1987).An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire.p. 74.
  3. ^"Webb née Meredith, Mary Gladys (1881–1927)".oxforddnb. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  4. ^Elderwick, Davied (1989).50 Shropshire Celebrities, Past and Present.IMPRINT, Newtown, Wales. p. 60.
  5. ^Francis, Peter (2006).A Matter of Life and Death - The Secrets of Shrewsbury Cemetery.Logaston Press. p. 41.ISBN1-904396-58-5.
  6. ^Dickins, Gordon,An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire(1987), p.76.
  7. ^An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire,pp.76, 107.
  8. ^Mary Coles, Gladys (1990).Mary Webb.Stroud: Seren Books.ISBN1-85411-034-9.
  9. ^"About us".The Mary Webb School and Science College. Archived fromthe originalon 7 September 2008.Retrieved17 October2007.
  10. ^From Redhill to Longden Common, Reflections of a Parish.,published by Longden 2000 Group (2000), p.152.
  11. ^A Matter of Life and Death, The Secrets of Shrewsbury Cemetery,p.55.
  12. ^ab"Mary Webb: brighter and better than Thomas Hardy".The Guardian.10 March 2009.Retrieved16 July2015.
  13. ^"Biography".The Mary Webb Society.Retrieved16 July2015.
  14. ^Literary Encyclopedia: Cold Comfort Farm
  15. ^Hammill, FayeCold Comfort Farm, D. H. Lawrence, and English Literary Culture Between the Wars,Modern Fiction Studies 47.4 (2001) 831-854
  16. ^Sutherland, John.Bestsellers: A Very Short Introduction,Oxford University Press (2007), p. 113ISBN0-19-157869-X
  17. ^"Anger at demolition plan for writer's Shrewsbury home".Shropshire Star.16 October 2013.Retrieved20 October2013.
  18. ^"The Powell & Pressburger Pages".Retrieved16 July2015.
  19. ^"TMA Theatre Awards 2004 nominations announced".8 June 2016.
  20. ^"Obituaries: Daphne Slater".The Telegraph.London.Retrieved16 July2015.
  21. ^Sarn (Film, 1968).WorldCat.OCLC691477180.
  22. ^"Literary legend's bust to be unveiled in park".Shropshire Star.9 July 2016. p. 7.
  23. ^"Author Mary lives on as new plaque unveiled at house".Shropshire Star.28 March 2022. p. 8.Report by Paul Jenkins.
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