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Margaret Ayer Barnes

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Margaret Ayer Barnes
Barnes on her graduation day in 1907
Born
Margaret Ayer

(1886-04-08)April 8, 1886
Chicago,Illinois,U.S.
DiedOctober 25, 1967(1967-10-25)(aged 81)
Cambridge, Massachusetts,U.S.
EducationBryn Mawr College(BA)
OccupationWriter
Spouse
Cecil Barnes
​
(m.1910)​
Children3, includingEdward

Margaret Ayer Barnes(April 8, 1886,Chicago, Illinois– October 25, 1967,Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Biography[edit]

Katharine Cornellin the Broadway production ofThe Age of Innocence(1928), Barnes' first play

Margaret Ayer grew up the youngest of four siblings in Chicago, Illinois. As a child, she had a keen interest in theater and reading. She befriendedEdward Sheldon,[1]a playwright who would encourage her to become a writer many years later.

Ayer attendedBryn Mawr College,where she earned an A.B. degree in 1907.[2]In 1936, she received an honorary degree in Doctor of Letters fromOglethorpe University.She married Cecil Barnes in 1910,[3]and had three sons.

In 1920, Barnes was elected alumnae director of Bryn Mawr and served three years. As director, she helped to organize theBryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry,which offered an alternative educational program for women workers within a traditional institution. Consisting mainly of young, single immigrant women with little to no academic background, the summer program offered courses in progressive education, liberal arts and economics. Women in the program were encouraged to develop confidence as speakers, writers and leaders in the workplace.[4]

In 1926, at age 40, Barnes broke her back in a traffic accident. With the encouragement of friend and playwrightEdward Sheldon,she took up writing as a way to occupy her time. Between 1926 and 1930 she wrote several short stories — all of them published by magazines and later collected in a volume titledPrevailing Winds[5]— and three plays.

Her first play, an adaptation ofEdith Wharton's 1920 novelThe Age of Innocence,was purchased byKatharine Cornellin 1928.Gilbert Millerproduced it on Broadway with Cornell's husbandGuthrie McClinticdirecting; the play ran for 207 performances. Cornell next starred in a Broadway production ofDishonored Lady(1930), a play that Barnes wrote with Sheldon based on the famous case ofMadeleine Smith.It was a popular melodrama that ran 16 weeks on Broadway followed by a long tour.[6][7][8]

Barnes' 1929 playJennywas also written in collaboration with Sheldon. The comedy was produced on Broadway starringJane Cowl.[5][9]

In 1931 Barnes won thePulitzer Prizefor her first novel,Years of Grace.[10]

A 1936 lawsuit againstMetro-Goldwyn-Mayerfor copyright infringement claimed that the script MGM used for the motion pictureLetty Lynton(1932) plagiarized material from the playDishonored LadybyEdward Sheldonand Barnes.[11]The film is still unavailable today because of this lawsuit.

Personal life[edit]

Barnes was the wife of a prominent Chicago attorney, Cecil Barnes, with whom she had three sons including noted architectEdward Larrabee Barnes.Her older sister wassuffragetteand fellow authorJanet Ayer Fairbank;her nieceJanet Fairbankwas a well-known operatic singer.[12] Barnes died October 25, 1967, at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 81.[5]

Works[edit]

Katharine Cornell in the 1930 Broadway production ofDishonored Lady

References[edit]

  1. ^"Pennsylvania Center for the Book".pabook.libraries.psu.edu.Archivedfrom the original on 2019-09-27.Retrieved2019-09-27.
  2. ^Fischer, Heinz Dietrich (1997).Novel/fiction Awards 1917-1994: From Pearl S. Buck and Margaret Mitchell to Ernest Hemingway and John Updike.Walter de Gruyter.ISBN9783598301803.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-17.Retrieved2020-11-13.
  3. ^Haytock, Jennifer (2013-08-20).The Middle Class in the Great Depression: Popular Women's Novels of the 1930s.Springer.ISBN9781137347206.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-17.Retrieved2020-11-13.
  4. ^"Margaret Ayer Barnes Collection at Bryn Mawr Library".Archived fromthe originalon 2017-04-03.Retrieved2006-04-08.
  5. ^abc"Margaret Ayer Barnes Is Dead".The New York Times.October 26, 1967.Archivedfrom the original on January 20, 2023.RetrievedJanuary 20,2023.
  6. ^"The Age of Innocence".Internet Broadway Database.Archivedfrom the original on January 20, 2023.RetrievedJanuary 20,2023.
  7. ^"Dishonored Lady".Internet Broadway Database.Archivedfrom the original on January 20, 2023.RetrievedJanuary 20,2023.
  8. ^Cornell, Katharine; Sedgwick, Ruth Woodbury (1939).I Wanted to Be an Actress: The Autobiography of Katharine Cornell.New York: Random House. pp. 83–88.
  9. ^"Jenny".Internet Broadway Database.Archivedfrom the original on January 20, 2023.RetrievedJanuary 20,2023.
  10. ^Stringer, Jenny; Sutherland, John (1996).The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Literature in English.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780192122711.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-17.Retrieved2020-11-13.
  11. ^Schechter, Roger; Thomas, John (2010-08-17).Principles of Copyright Law (Concise Hornbook Series).West Academic. p. 373.ISBN9781628105179.
  12. ^"Mrs. Barnes Dies - Pulitzer Prize Author - 'Years of Grace' novel a Chicago Story".The Chicago Daily Tribune:D6. October 26, 1967.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Margaret_Ayer_Barnes&oldid=1217758531"