Margaret Lane
Margaret Lane (1907-1994) was a notable English journalist, biographer, and novelist, recognized for her contributions to literature and journalism in the 20th century. Born in Cheshire, England, she was one of the early female journalists, beginning her career at the Daily Express. Lane later worked as a special correspondent in New York and for the Daily Mail, before shifting focus towards fiction and biographies after her divorce in 1939. She authored several novels, including "Faith, Hope, No Charity" and "At Last the Island," but is particularly celebrated for her biographical works. Her most famous biographies include "Edgar Wallace: The Biography of a Phenomenon" and "The Tale of Beatrix Potter," both of which have been highly regarded and reprinted. In addition to her literary achievements, Lane was actively involved in various literary organizations and served as president of several societies related to authors like Dickens and Austen. She later married Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings and became the countess of Huntington, having two daughters. Lane's legacy endures through her extensive body of work and her influence on both journalism and literature.
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Subject Terms
Margaret Lane
Writer
- Born: June 23, 1907
- Birthplace: Cheshire, England
- Died: February 14, 1994
- Place of death: Southampton, England
Biography
English journalist, biographer, and novelist Margaret Lane was born in 1907 in Cheshire, England. Her father was a newspaper editor, and after she received her M.A. from Oxford University in 1928, Lane followed in his footsteps and became one of the first female journalists, working as a staff reporter for the Daily Express from 1928 to 1931. Beginning in 1931, she spent a year as a special correspondent in New York for the International News Service and returned to London as a special correspondent for the Daily Mail, where she worked from 1932 until 1938.
Lane married Bryan Edgar Wallace in 1934 but they divorced in 1939. During her marriage, Lane began writing her own adventure and mystery stories, publishing the novel Faith, Hope, No Charity in 1935, for which she received the Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse Anglais. She followed it with At Last the Island in 1937, Walk into My Parlor in 1941, and Where Helen Lies in 1944. By the time of her divorce, Lane was able to support herself primarily as a writer and no longer held reporting jobs, although she published articles in various magazines, including Cornhill, Punch, and The Times Literary Supplement
Her novels were popular, but Lane is best remembered for her biographies, including the widely respected life of the popular and then-recently deceased novelist, Edgar Wallace: The Biography of a Phenomenon. Initially released in 1938, a revised edition was prepared in 1965, with an introduction by Graham Greene. The Tale of Beatrix Potter (1946), Lane’s biography of the beloved children’s writer, also was reprinted and appeared in a revised and enlarged edition in 1968. Her biography of the Brönte family, The Bronte Story: A Reconsideration of Mrs. Gaskell’s “Life of Charlotte Bronte” published in 1953, is both a scholarly work of literary criticism as well as a readable biography.
For the remainder of the 1950’s and 1960’s, Lane primarily wrote novels. She began a highly prolific period in the 1970’s, publishing numerous novels, editing several compilations, and writing three biographies: Frances Wright and “The Great Experiment”, about the feminist, utopian activist; Samuel Johnson and His World; and the first of two additional works on Beatrix Potter, The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter. The Beatrix Potter Country Cookery Book appeared in 1982. Around the same time as this renewed interest in Potter, Lane began publishing her own children’s books, writing The Squirrel in 1981 and expanding it into a series of ten books with animal themes published between 1982 and 1985.
Throughout her career, Lane was active in numerous literary and journalistic organizations, serving as president of the Women’s Press Club from 1958 until 1960, the Dickens Fellowship from 1959 to 1961 and again in 1970, the Johnson Society in 1971, the Brönte Society in 1976, and the Jane Austen Society in 1983. In February, 1944, Lane married Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings, the fifteenth earl of Huntington, and became the countess of Huntington. They had two children, Selina and Harriet. Lane died in Southhampton, England, in 1994.