Mary Lucy Pendered (1858 â 19 December 1940) was an English novelist with a career spanning over fifty years. Despite attaining some popularity in her day, she has subsequently fallen into obscurity.
Biography
Born in Peckham, Mary Lucy Pendered was the daughter of Thomas Pendered, an auctioneer, and Elizabeth (née Hill). She spent much of her life living in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
In 1892 she moved to London to become a journalist working for Life magazine and later the London edition of the Detroit Free Press. After this she spent three or four months in Scotland reporting for the Oban Times. It was here that she worked with Alice Stronach writing four or five columns a night. In addition, she contributed many short stories to periodicals, writing several pieces for the British Musician and Musical News and the Musical Times. She also wrote letters to the newspapers on topics such as womenâÂÂs suffrage and pacifism.
During the early years of the First World War, Mary lived at Herne Bay, where she was President of the Herne Bay Society for WomenâÂÂs Suffrage. She was an accomplished pianist and ran a social club for soldiers, offering tea, biscuits, bagatelle and billiards.
On her return to Northamptonshire in 1917, she was elected President of the Wellingborough Branch of the National Union of WomenâÂÂs Suffrage Societies.
In the 1920s she was an influence on H.E. Bates who was working as a journalist on the Kettering Reminder.
Mary Lucy Pendered died on 19 December 1940 at Beechwood, Overstone Park after a short illness. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at Kettering.
Work
Pendered has been described as a writer of âÂÂcoy pastoral talesâÂÂ. She produced 29 novels and plays.
Bibliography
Novels
- Dust and Laurels: a study in nineteenth century womenhood (1894)
- A Pastoral Played Out (1895)
- To Lunaland with a Moon Goblin (1897)
- An Englishman (1899)
- Musk of Roses (1903)
- The Truth about Man by a Spinster (1905)
- A Little Garland (1908)
- The Fair Quaker, Hannah Lightfoot and her relations with George III (1910)
- The Secret of the Dragon (1911)
- Daisy the Minx (1911)
- At Lavender Cottage (1912)
- Phyllida Flouts Me (1913)
- Lily Magic (1913)
- Plain Jill (1915)
- The Secret Sympathy (1916)
- The Book of Common Joys (1916)
- William Penn: A Play (1922)
- Land of Moonshine (1922)
- John Martin, Painter (1923)
- The Quaker (1926)
- Mortmain (1928)
- Amber Rose (1928)
- The Uncanny House (1929)
- A Heart Call (1929)
- The Forsaken House at Misty Vale (1932)
- A Pageant at Northamptonshire (1933)
- Herriot of Wellinborrow (1936)
- Princess or Pretender (1939)
Short stories
- âÂÂChobertsteinâ The Magazine of Music (1886)
- âÂÂThat haunting minor strainâ The Magazine of Music (1886)
- âÂÂI love thee soâ The Magazine of Music (1886)
- âÂÂMusic hath charmsâ The Magazine of Music (1886)
- âÂÂMy lady is so sweetâ The Magazine of Music (1887)
- âÂÂAmateur singingâ The Magazine of Music (1887)
- âÂÂA baneful banjo!â The Magazine of Music (1888)
- âÂÂA little bird told meâ The Magazine of Music (1888)
- âÂÂWhen kissing's in fashionâ The Magazine of Music (1888)
- âÂÂHis modelâ Belgravia (1889)
- âÂÂAttraction!â The Girls' Own Paper (November 1889)
- âÂÂArtistic Affinitiesâ Musical Standard (1892)
- âÂÂA Swerve asideâ Quiver (1893)
- âÂÂCynthia's Successâ Myra's Journal of Dress and Fashion (January 1893)
- âÂÂMiss Miffin's crimeâ The Idler (1895)
- âÂÂThe kidnapping of the "squallerâ The Idler (1895)
- âÂÂDr. O. W. Holmes on the "New Womanâ Women's Penny Paper (July 1895)
- âÂÂDrawing-room songsâ The Magazine of Music (1896)
- âÂÂAn old irish historyâ The New Century Review (1897)
- âÂÂBen Plumby's cornetâ Longman's Magazine (1897)
- âÂÂThe 'orseâ Longman's Magazine (1897)
- âÂÂThe sport of devilsâ The Idler (1898)
- âÂÂThin-skunâ The Idler (1898)
- âÂÂA Surprise at the Hydroâ The Idler (1898)
- âÂÂThe simplicity of Susanâ Belgravia (1899)
- 'On the art of accompanyingâ CassellâÂÂs Family Magazine (July 1890)
- âÂÂMathilde Blindâ The Academy (1900)
- âÂÂHow Morag found her Ladâ Temple Bar (1901)
- âÂÂThe Gooseberry and the Goblinâ The Argosy (1901)
- âÂÂAdam's auntâ Temple Bar (1904)
- âÂÂThe Match Breakerâ The Smart Set (1904)
- âÂÂMademoiselle Gaurierâ Quiver (Jan 1906)
- âÂÂIreneâÂÂs Horrible Presentimentâ Temple Bar (July 1906)
- âÂÂTorch Lilyâ Royal Magazine(1908)
- âÂÂSympathy [Poem]â The Girls' Own Paper n.d.
References
External links