G. B. Stern
Gladys Bronwyn Stern (G. B. Stern) was a notable British author born to Jewish immigrant parents in London. Her early life was marked by adversity when her family faced financial difficulties, prompting a move to the Continent where she attended various schools in Germany and Switzerland. Despite feeling inadequately educated, she pursued her passion for the arts by studying at the Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Stern began her literary career in 1908 with poetry and later gained widespread acclaim for her fiction, particularly with the publication of "The Tents of Israel" in 1924, which explored the lives of the cosmopolitan Rakonitz family.
Additionally, she ventured into screenwriting during a brief period in Hollywood and conducted a lecture tour in the United States. During World War II, Stern remained in London, where she focused on critical writing about authors such as Jane Austen and Robert Louis Stevenson, with the latter influencing her own work, "No Son of Mine." In a significant personal turning point, she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1947, an experience that she reflected upon in her later autobiographical writings. Stern's work has recently garnered renewed interest for its implicit feminist themes, especially in her Matriarch series, which has been revived by Virago Press.
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G. B. Stern
- Born: June 17, 1890
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: September 19, 1973
- Place of death: Wallingford, Berkshire, England
Biography
Gladys Bronwyn Stern’s parents were second-generation Jewish immigrants to London who, after they lost their money in a diamond crash when Stern was fourteen, emigrated back to the Continent. Stern lived in a series of hotels while she attended school in Germany and Switzerland. She would later say, “[L]ike most females of my class and generation, I only feel half-educated; less than that, quarter-educated.” In addition to her finishing schools, Stern attended the Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She married once, in 1919 to the New Zealander Geoffrey Lisle Holdsworth. The couple later divorced.
Stern began her literary career with periodical publication of a poem in 1908. For the next fifteen years, she produced a steady stream of well-received and popular short and long fiction. When The Tents of Israel (also known as The Matriarch: A Chronicle), the first of a series of novels about the cosmopolitan Rakonitz family, appeared in 1924, her popularity skyrocketed. In addition to fiction, Stern also produced screenplays during a brief stint in Hollywood, during which she also took the opportunity to conduct a lecture tour of the United States.
Stern spent World War II in London, where she survived the Nazi bombings with only her life and a favorite walking stick intact. During this period she also concentrated on critical and biographical writing about two of her favorite writers, Jane Austen and Robert Louis Stevenson. The latter also inspired what Stern called her favorite among her own works, No Son of Mine (1948), in which the protagonist investigates Stevenson’s life. In 1947, Stern converted to Roman Catholicism, and the autobiographical works she produced later in her career address this momentous decision. Contemporary audiences have been particularly drawn to the feminism implicit in Stern’s work, particularly in the Matriarch series, which was brought back into print by Virago Press.