Jessie Mabel Pritchard Dearmer (née White; 22 March 1872 – 15 July 1915) was an English novelist, dramatist and children's book author/illustrator. She was a committed pacifist who died while caring for the war wounded in Serbia.
Mabel Dearmer | |
|---|---|
 Dearmer in 1890 | |
| Born | Mabel White 22 March 1872 |
| Died | 15 July 1915 (aged 43) |
| Cause of death | typhoid |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | illustrator |
| Spouse | Percy Dearmer |
| Children | 2, including Geoffrey |
Early life
editBorn Jessie Mabel Pritchard White, the daughter of surgeon-major William White and Selina Taylor Pritchard, she was educated in London and was trained by W. G. Wills. She entered Hubert von Herkomer's art school in 1891,[1] but left the following year to marry the socialist liturgist priest Percy Dearmer.[2]
Writing career
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In 1896, she began contributing illustrations to The Yellow Book, The Savoy and The Studio. She notable created the cover for the Yellow Book's issue number nine.[1] She soon after turned to children's book illustration. Dearmer created artwork for Wymps, and Other Fairy Tales and All the Way to Fairyland by Evelyn Sharp and The Story of the Seven Young Goslings by Laurence Housman (1899). She also illustrated several self-written titles, Round-about Rhymes (1898), The Book of Penny Toys (1899), and The Noah’s Ark Geography (1900).[1]
From 1902, Dearmer began writing for adults, beginning with The Noisy Years and its 1906 sequel Brownjohn’s. Her autobiography The Difficult Way was published in 1905, and other titles include a historical romance The Orangery: A Comedy of Tears (1904), The Alien Sisters (1908), and Gervase 1909. A keen dramatist, in 1911 she founded the Morality Play Society, which performed productions of her plays The Soul of the World and The Dreamer.
Dearmer accompanied her husband when he volunteered as a chaplain to the British Red Cross. And though a committed pacifist, joined the Third Serbian Relief Unit as a nursing orderly. She left for Serbia in April 1915, but contracted enteric fever (typhoid) in June, and died of pneumonia on 15 July.[3] Her letters of that time were, with a memoir by Stephen Gwynn, posthumously published as Letters from a field hospital (1915).[4][5]
Three months after her death, her younger son Christopher, a Royal Navy pilot was killed after 10 days of active service in the Dardanelles in October 1915 in the Gallipoli Campaign.[5] His elder brother Geoffrey Dearmer survived to the age of 103. After serving in the Army at Gallipoli in World War I he wrote war poetry, and continued as an English ruralist poet, and novelist. In the 1930s, he joined the BBC, working in a combination of radio and church music, and became a founding force in “Children’s Hour”.[6]
Works
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- Roundabout Rhymes (1898)
- The Book of Penny Toys (1899)
- Noah's Ark Geography (1900), also known as The Cockyolly Bird and A Noah’s Ark Geography. A True Account of the Travels and Adventures of Kit, Jum-Jum and the Cockyolly Bird, faithfully set forth and pictured by Mabel Dearmer.
- The Noisy Years (1903)
- The Orangery: A Comedy of Tears. London: Smith, Elder, & Company. 1904.
- The Difficult Way (1905)
- Brownjohn's (1906)
- A Child's Life of Christ (1907)
- The Alien Sisters (1908)
- The Sisters. New York: McClure Company. 1908.
- Gervase (1909)
- Nan Pilgrim (1909)
- The Soul of the World: A Mystery Play (1911)
- The Dreamer: A Poetic Drama (1912)
- The Cockyolly Bird (1913: produced in London, with music and dance)
- Brer Rabbit and Mr. Fox. London: Joseph Williams. 1914. with Martin Shaw
- The Cockyolly Bird: A Book of the Play (1914)
References
edit- ^ a b c Bailey, Alison. "Dearmer , (Jessie) Mabel Prichard (1872–1915)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/55763. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Mitchell 1965, p. 160.
- ^ Maltz, Diana (2012). Denisoff, Dennis; Janzen Kooistra, Lorraine (eds.). "Mabel Dearmer (1872-1915)". The Yellow Nineties Online. Ryerson University. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
- ^ Dearmer, Mabel; Gwynn, Stephen (1915). Letters from a field hospital. With a memoir of the author by Stephen Gwynn. London: Macmillan. Retrieved 25 August 2015 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ a b Bailey, Alison (19 August 2014). "Mabel Dearmer in Serbia -". Untold lives blog. The British Library. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
- ^ "Geoffrey Dearmer Prize – The Poetry Society". poetrysociety.org.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- Mitchell, David J. (1965). Monstrous Regiment: The Story of the Women of the First World War. New York: Macmillan.
External links
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- Mabel Dearmer by Richard Mammana
- Mabel Dearmer at Library of Congress, with 6 library catalogue records
- Article on Mabel Dearmer from 'The Yellow Nineties Online'
- 'Mabel Dearmer in Serbia' blog entry from the British Library