Olivier, Edith (c. 1879–1948)

English novelist and biographer. Born Edith Maud Olivier around 1879 in the rectory at Wilton, Wiltshire, England; died on May 10, 1948, at home on the earl of Pembroke's estate in Wilton, England; daughter of Dacres Olivier (rector of Wilton and chaplain to the earls of Pembroke) and Emma (Eden) Olivier; sister of Henry Eden Olivier (b. 1866, an Anglican priest and writer); taught by mother in early years, had first governess at age 12, and attended St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford University, during four nonconsecutive terms; never married.

Selected works:

(novels) The Love Child (1927), As Far as Jane's Grandmother's (1928), Underground River (1929), The Triumphant Footman (1930), Dwarf's Blood (1931), The Seraphim Room (published in U.S. as Mrs. Chilvester's Daughters , 1932); (short stories) Moonrakings (1930); (biographies) The Eccentric Life of Alexander Cruden (published in U.S. as Alexander the Corrector , 1934), Mary Magdalen (1935); (autobiography) Without Knowing Mr. Walkley: Personal Memories (1938); also author of Country Moods and Tenses (1941).

Edith Olivier, who was born in the rectory at Wilton, Wiltshire, England, had originally hoped for a career in the theater, but her upbringing in a strict Victorian household precluded this. Instead, she devoted herself to writing. Her novels, for the most part, are imaginative and concentrate on the portrayal of human emotions.

As one of the ten children of the Reverend Canon Dacres Olivier, Edith grew up in a rigid, clerical household, which was dominated by her kind but stern father. The year of her birth, estimated as 1879, is unclear because Olivier refused to reveal it, saying she was "horrified to discover how much older I am than most writers. I seem to be completely out of date." Her mother Emma Eden Olivier , daughter of a bishop, oversaw Edith's early education, but by the age of 12, governesses had assumed this responsibility. Though she won a scholarship to study at St. Hugh's Hall, Oxford University, she was able to attend only sporadically because of poor health, and completed four nonconsecutive terms there. Due to her strict upbringing, suitors were discouraged as was her interest in a career in the theater. Instead, Olivier stayed at home and trained the church choir, conducted the choral society, managed the girls' club, and acted in private theatrical activities. The title of her autobiography, Without Knowing Mr. Walkley (1938), was a reflection of her unfulfilled theatrical ambitions. Olivier had once declared that she "would have lived in vain" if she died without ever having met Arthur Walkley, then a drama critic of The London Times. Walkley, however, predeceased her, without the longed-for meeting.

While at Oxford, Olivier occasionally dined with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. She was also close friends with writers Sylvia Townsend Warner , David Garnett, and Elinor Wylie , and artist Rex Whistler, who provided the decorations for several of her books. During World War I, Olivier was an officer in the Women's Land Army in Wiltshire; she also served as mayor of Wilton for several terms.

Her first novel The Love Child (1927) concerned a lonely girl and her imaginary companion. As Far as Jane's Grandmother's (1928) was "a symbolic picture of life in my father's house." The Triumphant Footman (1930) was an amusing fantasy based on an actual family footman who masqueraded as a noble. Dwarf's Blood (1931) became a selection of the New York Literary Guild. Moonrakings (1930) was a collection of short stories set in Wiltshire. Olivier also wrote two biographies: Mary Magdalen (1935) and The Eccentric Life of Alexander Cruden (1934); Cruden was the compiler of an 18th-century Biblical concordance. Edith Olivier died at her home on the earl of Pembroke's estate in 1948.

sources:

Kunitz, Stanley J., and Howard Haycraft, eds. British Authors of the Nineteenth Century. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1936.

Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford and NY: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Jo Anne Anne , freelance writer, Brookfield, Vermont