Phyllis Bottome
Phyllis Bottome was an English novelist born in 1882 in Kent, the daughter of an American clergyman. Her education included attendance at a Catholic boarding school in New York before she returned to England, where she pursued acting. However, health issues, including tuberculosis, led her to focus on writing, resulting in her first novel, *Life, the Interpreter*, published in 1902. Bottome's experiences with illness prompted a pattern of travel across Europe, where she continued to write and publish. She married Captain Alban Ernan Forbes-Dennis in 1917 and, during World War I, contributed to the Ministry of Information and assisted Belgian refugees. Bottome's literary work often addressed social issues, particularly the struggles of women in a patriarchal society, leading to the creation of "social romances." Notable works include *The Dark Tower*, *Old Wine*, and *The Mortal Storm*, the latter highlighting the threat of Nazism. She utilized Adlerian psychology in her character development, presenting complex portrayals of individuals grappling with societal constraints. In her later years, Bottome published three autobiographies, reflecting her commitment to freedom and social awareness.
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Phyllis Bottome
Author
- Born: May 31, 1882
- Birthplace: Rochester, Kent, England
- Died: August 22, 1963
- Place of death: Hampstead, London, England
Biography
Phyllis Bottome was born in Kent, England, in 1882, the third of four children, to American clergyman William MacDonald Bottome and Margaret Leatham Bottome. Although most of her education occurred at home, she spent the years from 1890 to 1895 as a student at a Catholic boarding school in New York. Bottome retuned to England in 1896, where she studied acting in London. However, illness prevented her from making her acting debut. Reading nineteenth century women’s fiction at this time motivated her to write her first novel, Life, the Interpreter (1902), which concerns an independent woman. With the onset of tuberculosis, Bottome’s health deteriorated soon after its publication. In an effort to cure her illness, she began a lifelong pattern of healthful travel in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, all the while writing and publishing novels in Britain and the United States.
Bottome married Captain Alban Ernan Forbes-Dennis in 1917, whom she had met years before at Moritz while they both were undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. While her husband served at the front during World War I, Bottome worked as a writer for the Ministry of Information and aided Belgian refugees. After the war, her husband’s role as a diplomat allowed Bottome to travel throughout Europe. In Vienna in 1920, she helped the popular social worker Valerie Adler and her husband, the famous psychiatristAlfred Adler (who analyzed Bottome), with relief work.
Bottome is well regarded as a writer who deals with social ills and women’s struggle with identity in a patriarchal society. Between 1904 and 1917, she wrote a series of serialized novels, what came to be termed “social romances,” for American periodicals. While living in London, she gained attention as a London literary light and kept company with the likes of writers Ezra Pound and Daphne du Maurier. Her 1916 The Dark Tower became an instant American hit. Between 1917 and 1924, she published seven novels that thematically dealt with women’s inferior role in patriarchal societies. Her Old Wine (1925), set in postwar Austria, brought her great critical acclaim. Private Worlds (1934), a novel concerned with mental illness, was made into a popular film, as was her enormously successful The Mortal Storm (1937), which sounded the alarm against Nazism.
Bottome’s novels are highly regarded for their social insights and for her use of Adlerian psychology in her portrayal of literary characters as multifaceted complex human beings at odds with society. In 1947, she published the first of her three autobiographies, Search for a Soul: Fragment of an Autobiography, followed by The Challenge in 1952 and The Goal in 1962. A proponent of freedom, Bottome spent her life writing novels that were popular and often feminist. She exhibited a great social conscience and worked to raise the public’s awareness of political dangers.