Books and Writers

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MACCARTHY, JOHN BERNARD
Playwright, Poet, Novelist & Short Story Writer

MACDIARMID, HUGH
Poet. Nationalist & Marxist. Leader of the Scottish literary renaissance. Married Margaret Skinner in 1918 (divorced 1932) & Valda Trevlyn in 1934

MACDONALD, GEORGE
Poet & Novelist. First Editor of the magazine Good Words for the Young. Awarded a Civil List pension in 1877 by Queen Victoria

MACDONALD, JOHN DANN
Novelist. Wrote 65 novels, selling over 70 million copies. Also had 500 stories published in magazines.

MACHEN, ARTHUR
Novelist & Writer. Married Amelia Hogg in 1887 (she died of cancer in 1899) & Dorothy Hudlestone in 1903. In London he worked as a publisher's clerk and tutor, catalogued occult books and did translations. From 1929 he lived in Amersham, Bucks, dying in a nursing home in Beaconsfield. He rarely made any money from his writing but has been very influential on horror fiction in the UK and America

MACKENZIE, SIR COMPTON
Novelist, Biographer, Essayist & critic. Captain in Royal Marines in WW1 and became Director of the Aegean Intelligence Service. Married Faith Stone in 1905, Christina MacSween in 1962 & her sister Lilian MacSween in 1965. For many years lived on the Isle of Barra, where he is buried.

MACLEISH, ARCHIBALD
Poet and dramatist. Married Ada Hitchcock in 1916. Lived in Europe 1923-8. Editor of Fortune Magazine in New York 1929-38

MACNEICE, FREDERICK LOUIS
Poet, Critic, playwright & translator & BBC Producer. Married Mary Ezra in 1930 (divorced 1937) & Hedli Anderson in 1942. Journalist in Spanish Civil War.

MAIS, STUART PETER BRODIE
Travel Writer & Critic

MAN, ISLE OF

MANN, THOMAS
Novelist. Left Germany 1933 for Switzerland, then moved to USA (became a US citizien in 1944) with his brother Heinrich. Nobel Prize 1929. Although probably homosexual in 1905 he married Katja Pringsheim. Two of his sisters and one of his sons committed suicide

MANNIN, ETHEL EDITH
Novelist, Essayist, Pacifist & Travel Writer. Lived in Connemara. Married J A Porteous 1920, and Reginald Reynolds in 1938

MARCHANT, BESSIE (ELIZABETH)
Writer of girls stories, especially about places abroad, although Marchant never left Britain ! Married Jabez Comfort, a clergyman, in 1889

MARRYAT, FREDERICK ('CAPT')
Novelist, Draughtsman and Caricaturist. Died of Haemoptysis

MARSH, RICHARD BERNARD HELDEMANN
Novelist of mysteries, thrillers, humour, horror and fantasy. Died of heart failure

MARTINEAU, HARRIET
Writer, Journalist (may have been the first female journalist) & Novelist. Involved in Unitarian Movement. Remained single. Deaf, plus no sense of smell or taste. Contributed to the Edinburgh Review and wrote over 1600 articles for the Daily News (1851-1866). From 1845 until her death she lived in Ambleside

MASEFIELD, JOHN (EDWARD)
Poet and novelist. Went to America aged 17 and worked at various jobs until 1897 when he returned to England. Married Constance de la Cherois Crommelin, a schoolteacher, in 1903. From 1909-10 he had a passionate affair with Elizabeth Robins and supported women's suffrage. Poet Laureate 1930-1967

MAUGHAM, WILLIAM SOMERSET
Novelist and short story writer. Homosexual. Married Syrie Wellcome in 1917 but the couple lived apart & divorced in 1928. His companion for most of his life was his secretary, Gerald Haxton (1892-1944) who had been prosecuted, but acquitted of an act of gross indecency in a London hotel. They lived on the French Riviera from 1928. After Haxton's death he lived with Alan Searle (1904-85)

MAXWELL, DONALD
Writer and illustrator

MAYNE, WILLIAM
Children's writer. Single living in the Yorkshire Dales. Composes music. Imprisoned for 2 years in 2004 for paedophilia

MEADE, L T
Novelist for girls. Wrote over 300 books. Lived in England from 1874. Married Alfred Toulmin Smith, a solicitor, in 1879 and they settled in London. Edited the magazine Atlanta for 6 years. Collaborated with Robert Eustace (a pseudonym for Dr Eustace Robert Barton) in five science fiction books (1898-1902) and with Clifford Halifax (a pesudonym for Dr Edgar Beaumont) on six crime novels

MEE, ARTHUR
Prolific Writer and Editor. Married Amy Fratson in 1897.

MELVILLE, HERMAN
Novelist & poet. In 1839 he shipped as a cabin boy to Liverpool and later sailed for the South Seas on the whaler "Acushnet" (1841). Jumping ship he had many experiences in the islands of the Pacific and returned to New York to write about them. Married Elizabeth Shaw in 1847

MEREDITH, GEORGE
Novelist, Journalist & poet. Married Mary Nicolls, a widow in 1849. She deserted him in 1858 and in 1864 he married Marie Vulliamy

MILLAR, HAROLD R
Painter & Illustrator who worked for Strand magazine, for which he illustrated stories by E Nesbit. His work appeared in Little Folks (1890 Cassell)

MILLER, HENRY VALENTINE
Writer. Lived in Europe 1930-1940

MILLER, ARTHUR
Jewish Playwright, Novelist & Short Story Writer. Married Mary Slattery in 1940 & Marilyn Monroe in 1956 (divorced 1961). He was brought before the House Committee on Un-American Acitivities in the 1950s but refused to name names. In 1962 he married Ingeborg Morath

MILLIGAN, SPIKE (TERENCE ALAN)
Comedy writer, Poet and Autobiographer

MILNE, ALAN ALEXANDER (AA)
Humorist, Novelist and Poet. Married Daphne de Selincourt in 1913. Their son, Christopher Robin, became the character in Milne's books

MILTON, JOHN
Poet & Pamphleteer. Married three times - in 1643 to Mary Powell (d1652), in 1656 to Catherine Woodcock (d1657) and 1662 to Elizabeth Minshull (she was 25 he was 55). Went blind in 1652.

MIND, BODY & SPIRIT, BOOKS ON .....

MITCHELL, GLADYS MAUDE WINIFRED
Crime Novelist. Creator of Dame Beatrice Bradley, psychiatric adviser to the Home Office

MITCHISON, NAOMI (MARY MARGARET)
Novelist & Writer. Daughter of Prof J S Haldane. A Fabian campaigner. Married Gilbert Mitchison (a Labour MP in 1945) 1916

MITFORD, MARY RUSSELL
Novelist, Playwright, Essayist & Poet. In 1797 she won a lottery prize of £20,000 that made her family financially secure for many years. From 1820 she lived the rest of her life in the Berkshire village of Three Mile Cross

MOLESWORTH, MRS MARY LOUISE STEWART
Children's novelist. Calvinist. Married Major Richard Molesworth in 1861, later divorced. She went to live in France. Published 100 books

MOORCOCK, MICHAEL (JOHN)
Science fiction Novelist

MOORE, GEORGE AUGUSTUS
Novelist & prose Writer. Wealthy upbringing, inheriting his father's 12,000 acre estate in Co Mayo. Became a Protestant and preferred to live in Sussex

MOORE, THOMAS
Romantic Poet, and Biographer. National songwriter of Ireland. Married Bessie Dyke, an actress, in 1811

MORISON, STANLEY
Writer on Typography and Printing. Book designer. On the staff of The Times, typographical adviser to CUP and the Monotype Corporation. Designed the Times Roman Font & Gollancz jackets in 1930's

MORRIS, WILLIAM
Poet and Craftsman. 1859 married Jane Burden. Established the Kelmscott (named after his house, Kelmscott Manor, near Lechlade) Press in 1890. Helped form the Socialist League in 1884

MORTIMER, SIR JOHN (CLIFFORD)
Barrister turned playwright, scriptwriter and novelist

MOTHER GOOSE

MOUNTAINEERING BOOKS

MUSIC HALL BOOKS

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY