Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967) read Modern History at Somerville from 1915-19. She was celebrated in the 1920s and 1930s for her novels, the most famous of which was The Constant Nymph (1924), her second published work. It brought her instant recognition, was a commercial and literary success, and was reprinted in several editions in Britain and America. Margaret Kennedy adapted The Constant Nymph for the theatre in collaboration with Basil Dean, and it was successfully staged in London and New York, starring Noel Coward and later John Gielgud. Four film versions were also produced.
In all, Margaret Kennedy wrote fifteen novels and three plays over a period of more than forty years. Her books were remarkable for being both tremendously popular and well regarded by literary society, as witnessed by some of the letters in the collection from fellow authors, including Thomas Hardy (via his wife), Dodie Smith, C.S. Lewis, A.E. Housman and many others. Troy Chimneys (1952) won the coveted James Tait Black Memorial Prize, whilst The Feast (1950) and Lucy Carmichael (1951) were selected as Literary Guild and Book Society choices. She also published short stories and non-fiction pieces, including a consideration of the medium of film in The Mechanised Muse (1942). Her memoir of wartime life in Cornwall, Where Stands a Wingèd Sentry (1941), was originally published only in the United States; a UK edition was published in 2021.
Contents and provenance
The bulk of the Margaret Kennedy Papers were deposited at Somerville by her family in the early 1990s and given to the college in 2011, with a further donation of books and papers in 2017. The collection includes journals, juvenilia, typescripts of talks and short stories, and professional and personal correspondence. The papers were catalogued with the support of the family and now form an important archive of Margaret Kennedy’s work as a highly influential writer, and of her life as a wife and mother during the darkest years of the twentieth century.
Using the collection
The finding aid can be found here (PDF, 26KB). To consult the collection, please complete the application form found on the library and archives website here.
Limitations on use
Copyright in Margaret Kennedy’s works is held by English PEN.