Dorothy Eden
Dorothy Eden was a New Zealand-born author, recognized for her prolific contributions to historical romance and contemporary fiction. Born on April 3, 1912, in Canterbury Plains, she began her career as a legal secretary, dedicating her free time to writing. Eden's first novel was published in 1940, and she garnered attention for her compelling narratives featuring strong-willed heroines who often navigated complex social dynamics and moral dilemmas. In 1954, she moved to London, where she transitioned to full-time writing, eventually producing around forty novels throughout her career.
Eden's works often explored themes of deception and social ascent, with notable titles including "The Vines of Yarrabee," set in the Australian outback, and "Never Call It Loving," a biographical novel about a controversial love affair in Irish history. Despite facing challenges with rheumatoid arthritis in her later years, she continued to write, and her books achieved significant commercial success, selling five million copies and being translated into eighteen languages. Dorothy Eden passed away on March 4, 1982, in London, leaving behind a legacy as one of the prominent romance writers of her time.
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Subject Terms
Dorothy Eden
Writer
- Born: April 3, 1912
- Birthplace: Canterbury Plains, New Zealand
- Died: March 4, 1982
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Dorothy Eden was born on April 3, 1912, in Canterbury Plains, New Zealand, the daughter of John Eden, a farmer, and Eva Natalie Eden. She attended a village school and a secretarial college. In 1929, she left school to work as a legal secretary. In the remote part of New Zealand where she spent her childhood, Eden had to entertain herself, and she did so by reading. Before long, she had decided to become a writer. During her ten years as a legal secretary, Eden spent all of her free time working on her writing and sending manuscripts off to publishers. Her first book appeared in 1940. During the decade that followed, several more of her novels were published. In 1954, Eden moved to London, England. There she worked in the book department of a department store until she saw that she could support herself as a full-time writer.
Dorothy Eden began her career as a writer of historical novels set in her native New Zealand. Typically, her heroines are poor girls marrying into wealth, and they sometimes move up in society by deceiving others. For example, after the heroine of Sleep in the Woods emigrates to New Zealand and marries into Wellington society, she invents a respectable family back in England and then suffers both the pangs of conscience and the fear of being exposed. However, like all of Eden’s other women protagonists, she is a strong-willed, courageous woman. Whether they face danger from cannibalistic natives or the horrors of the Boxer Rebellion in China, Eden’s heroines always behave nobly enough to merit the love of a high-placed, wealthy husband and a lifetime of happiness.
Eden also wrote contemporary novels like the thriller The Shadow Wife and spy stories like “Waiting for Willa,” as well as a number of short stories that appeared in magazines and in two collections of her short fiction. However, Eden was best known for her historical romances. Her most popular novel was The Vines of Yarrabee, set in the Australian outback during the early years of the nineteenth century. The meticulous research demonstrated in such works was also evident in Never Call It Loving: A Biographical Novel of Katherine O’Shea and Charles Stewart Parnell, the story of the scandalous love affair that destroyed an Irish political leader.
In the middle 1960’s, Eden developed rheumatoid arthritis, which made the use of her hands so painful that eventually she could work only two hours a day. However, she never stopped writing. Dorothy Eden died of cancer on March 4, 1982, in London, England. Over the course of her life, Eden published forty novels. In the years after 1970, her books sold five million copies and were translated into eighteen languages. She was ranked with such writers as Daphne du Maurier and Victoria Holt as among the best romance writers of her time.