Dodie Smith
Encyclopedia
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith (3 May 1896 – 24 November 1990) was an English novelist and playwright
. Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians
. Her other works include I Capture the Castle
and The Starlight Barking
.
, near Bury
in Lancashire
. An only child, her parents were Ernest and Ella Smith (née Furber). Ernest was a bank manager; he died in 1898, when Dorothy was two years old. Dodie and her mother moved to Old Trafford to live with her grandparents, William and Margaret Furber. Dorothy's childhood home, known as Kingston House, was at 609 Stretford Road. It faced the Manchester Ship Canal
, and she lived with her mother, maternal grandparents, two aunts, and three uncles. In her autobiography Look Back with Love (1974), she credits her grandfather William as one of three reasons she became a playwright. He was an avid theatergoer, and they had long talks about Shakespeare and melodrama
. The second reason, her uncle Harold Furber, an amateur actor, read plays with her and introduced her to contemporary drama. Thirdly, her mother had wanted to be an actress, an ambition frustrated except for walk-on parts, one in the company of Sarah Bernhardt
. She wrote her first play at the age of ten, and she began acting in bit roles in her teens at the Manchester Athenaeum Dramatic Society. Today there is a blue plaque
on the building, commemorating where Dorothy grew up. The formative years of Dorothy's childhood were spent at this house.
. She attended school in both Manchester and at St Paul's Girls' School
. In 1914, Dodie entered the Academy of Dramatic Art
. Her first role came in Arthur Wing Pinero
's Playgoers. Other roles after leaving RADA include a Chinese girl in Mr. Wu, a parlor maid in Ye Gods, and a young mother in Niobe, which was directed by Basil Dean
, who would go on to buy her play Autumn Crocus. She was also in the Portsmouth Repertory Theatre, traveled with a YMCA
company to entertain the troops in France during World War I
, toured with the French comedy French Leave, and appeared as Anne in Galsworthy
's The Pigeon at the Everyman Theatre and at a festival in Zürich
, Switzerland
. During her mother's degeneration whilst dying of breast cancer
, Dodie and her sister became followers of Christian Science
.
). She authored her first play, Autumn Crocus, in 1931 under the pseudonym C.L. Anthony. Its success, and the discovery of her identity by journalists, inspired the newspaper headline, "Shopgirl Writes Play". The show starred Fay Compton
and Francis Lederer
.
Her fourth play, Call It A Day, was put on by the Theatre Guild
on January 28, 1936, and ran for 194 performances. It ran in London for 509 performances, the longest run of any of Smith's plays to date. It was compared favorably to George S. Kaufman
and Edna Ferber
's Dinner at Eight
and Edward Knoblock
's Grand Hotel by Joseph Wood Krutch
. He also said of the production, that it "stays pretty consistently on the level of comedy and imposes upon its brittle structure no greater emotional weight than that structure is capable of bearing."
After the success of Call It A Day, Smith was able to purchase the The Barretts, a cottage near the village of Finchingfield
, Essex
. Her next play, Bonnet over the Windmill (1937), was not as successful. It follows three aspiring young actresses and their landlady, a middle-aged former music-hall performer, and the young women's attempts to attract the attention of a play-wright and a theater producer with hopes of obtaining dramatic roles.
Her next show, Dear Octopus (1938), starred DBE Marie Tempest
and Sir John Gielgud
. The unusual title refers to a toast in the play: "To the family—that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to." Brooks Atkinson
who called Smith a "domestic panoramatist" and compared her to a lot of English novelists, from Samuel Richardson
to Archibald Marshall
and called her the "appointed recorder" of the English family. The production in London ran for 376 performances, compared to that in New York of only 53.
When Smith came to America to cast Dear Octopus, she brought with her Alec Macbeth Beesley, who had worked like her at Heal's and had become her longtime friend and business manager. The two married in 1939. She would not have another play running in London until 1952, though Lovers and Friends did play at the Plymouth Theatre
in 1943. The show starred Katharine Cornell
and Raymond Massey
.
Smith spent most of her years as a writer living in a townhouse
in London
, where a plaque now commemorates her occupation.
. While living in the U.S. and feeling homesick for England, she wrote her first novel
in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
: I Capture the Castle
(1948). She and Beesley also spent time in Beverly Hills, Malibu, and Wilton, Connecticut
.
During their American interlude, the Beesleys became friends with writers Christopher Isherwood
, Charles Brackett
, and John Van Druten. In Smith's memoirs, she credits Alec with making the suggestion to Van Druten that he adapt Isherwood's Sally Bowles
story Goodbye to Berlin
into a play (the Van Druten play, I Am a Camera
, later became the musical Cabaret
). In her memoirs, Smith acknowledges having received writing advice from her friend, the novelist A. J. Cronin
.
Her first play back in London, Letter from Paris, was an adaption of Henry James
's short novel The Reverberator
. She followed the adapting style of William Archibald
's The Innocents
(adapted from The Turn of the Screw
) and Ruth and Augustus Goetz's The Heiress
(adapted from Washington Square
).
as her literary executor, a job she felt would not be much work. Barnes writes of the complicated task in his essay "Literary Executions", revealing among other things how he secured the return of the film rights to I Capture the Castle, which had been held by Disney since 1949 Smith's personal papers are housed in Boston University
's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, and include manuscripts, photographs, artwork, and correspondence (including letters from Christopher Isherwood
and John Gielgud
).
(1956) (which was adapted into the Disney
animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians
). Her novel I Capture the Castle
also has a devoted following (a film version
was released in 2003). I Capture the Castle was voted #82 as 'one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels' by the British public as part of the BBC
's The Big Read (2003).
, the first of nine.
Smith got the idea for her novel when a friend remarked at her own dalmatians: “Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat!”
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
. Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith. A sequel entitled The Starlight Barking continues from the end of the first novel....
. Her other works include I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle is Dodie Smith's first novel, written in the 1940s during a sojourn in America. Smith was already an established playwright and later became famous for authoring the children's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians....
and The Starlight Barking
The Starlight Barking
The Starlight Barking is a 1967 children's novel by Dodie Smith. It is a sequel to The Hundred and One Dalmatians.Although The Hundred and One Dalmatians has been adapted into two films , and each version has a sequel film , neither sequel film has...
.
Early life
Dorothy was born on 3 May 1896 in WhitefieldWhitefield, Greater Manchester
Whitefield is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on undulating ground in the Irwell Valley, along the south bank of the River Irwell, south-southeast of Bury, and to the north-northwest of the city of Manchester...
, near Bury
Bury
Bury is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, east of Bolton, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northwest of the city of Manchester...
in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. An only child, her parents were Ernest and Ella Smith (née Furber). Ernest was a bank manager; he died in 1898, when Dorothy was two years old. Dodie and her mother moved to Old Trafford to live with her grandparents, William and Margaret Furber. Dorothy's childhood home, known as Kingston House, was at 609 Stretford Road. It faced the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
, and she lived with her mother, maternal grandparents, two aunts, and three uncles. In her autobiography Look Back with Love (1974), she credits her grandfather William as one of three reasons she became a playwright. He was an avid theatergoer, and they had long talks about Shakespeare and melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
. The second reason, her uncle Harold Furber, an amateur actor, read plays with her and introduced her to contemporary drama. Thirdly, her mother had wanted to be an actress, an ambition frustrated except for walk-on parts, one in the company of Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
. She wrote her first play at the age of ten, and she began acting in bit roles in her teens at the Manchester Athenaeum Dramatic Society. Today there is a blue plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
on the building, commemorating where Dorothy grew up. The formative years of Dorothy's childhood were spent at this house.
Move to London
In 1910 Ella remarried and moved with her new husband and the 14 year old Dodie to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She attended school in both Manchester and at St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School is a senior independent school, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.-History:In 1904 a new day school for girls was established by the trustees of the Dean Colet Foundation , which had run St Paul's School for boys since the sixteenth century...
. In 1914, Dodie entered the Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
. Her first role came in Arthur Wing Pinero
Arthur Wing Pinero
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero was an English actor and later an important dramatist and stage director.-Biography:...
's Playgoers. Other roles after leaving RADA include a Chinese girl in Mr. Wu, a parlor maid in Ye Gods, and a young mother in Niobe, which was directed by Basil Dean
Basil Dean
Basil Herbert Dean CBE was an English actor, writer, film producer/director and theatrical producer/director....
, who would go on to buy her play Autumn Crocus. She was also in the Portsmouth Repertory Theatre, traveled with a YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
company to entertain the troops in France during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, toured with the French comedy French Leave, and appeared as Anne in Galsworthy
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
's The Pigeon at the Everyman Theatre and at a festival in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. During her mother's degeneration whilst dying of breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
, Dodie and her sister became followers of Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
.
Career after acting
Even though she had sold a film script, Schoolgirl Rebels under the pseudonym Charles Henry Percy, and written an one-act play, British Talent, that premiered at the Three Arts Club in 1924, she still had a hard time finding steady work. In 1923, she took a job in Heal and Son's furniture store in London and became the toy buyer (and a mistress of the chairman, Ambrose HealAmbrose Heal
Sir Ambrose Heal was an English furniture designer, and businessman in the first half of the 20th century....
). She authored her first play, Autumn Crocus, in 1931 under the pseudonym C.L. Anthony. Its success, and the discovery of her identity by journalists, inspired the newspaper headline, "Shopgirl Writes Play". The show starred Fay Compton
Fay Compton
Fay Compton was an English actress from a notable acting lineage; her father was actor/manager Edward Compton; her mother, Virginia Bateman, was a distinguished member of the profession, as were her sister, the actress Viola Compton, and her uncles and aunts. Her grandfather was the 19th-century...
and Francis Lederer
Francis Lederer
Francis Lederer was a film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States.-Europe:...
.
Her fourth play, Call It A Day, was put on by the Theatre Guild
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players.Its original purpose was to...
on January 28, 1936, and ran for 194 performances. It ran in London for 509 performances, the longest run of any of Smith's plays to date. It was compared favorably to George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
and Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
's Dinner at Eight
Dinner at Eight (play)
Dinner at Eight is a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber.-1932 Original Production:Dinner at Eight opened October 22, 1932 at the Music Box Theatre. It closed after 232 performances in May 1933. The play was produced by Sam H. Harris, staged by George S. Kaufman; Assistant Director: Robert B...
and Edward Knoblock
Edward Knoblock
Edward Knoblock was an American-born British playwright and novelist most remembered for the often revived 1911 play, Kismet-Biography:...
's Grand Hotel by Joseph Wood Krutch
Joseph Wood Krutch
Joseph Wood Krutch was an American writer, critic, and naturalist.Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he initially studied at the University of Tennessee and received a masters degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University. After serving in the army in 1918, he travelled in Europe for a year with friend...
. He also said of the production, that it "stays pretty consistently on the level of comedy and imposes upon its brittle structure no greater emotional weight than that structure is capable of bearing."
After the success of Call It A Day, Smith was able to purchase the The Barretts, a cottage near the village of Finchingfield
Finchingfield
Finchingfield is a village situated in the Braintree district of Essex. It is in the north-west of the county, which is a primarily rural area...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. Her next play, Bonnet over the Windmill (1937), was not as successful. It follows three aspiring young actresses and their landlady, a middle-aged former music-hall performer, and the young women's attempts to attract the attention of a play-wright and a theater producer with hopes of obtaining dramatic roles.
Her next show, Dear Octopus (1938), starred DBE Marie Tempest
Marie Tempest
Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...
and Sir John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
. The unusual title refers to a toast in the play: "To the family—that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to." Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...
who called Smith a "domestic panoramatist" and compared her to a lot of English novelists, from Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded , Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison...
to Archibald Marshall
Archibald Marshall
Arthur Hammond Marshall , better known by his pen name Archibald Marshall, was an English author, publisher and journalist whose novels were particularly popular in the United States. He published over 50 books and was recognized as a realist in his writing style, and was considered by some as a...
and called her the "appointed recorder" of the English family. The production in London ran for 376 performances, compared to that in New York of only 53.
When Smith came to America to cast Dear Octopus, she brought with her Alec Macbeth Beesley, who had worked like her at Heal's and had become her longtime friend and business manager. The two married in 1939. She would not have another play running in London until 1952, though Lovers and Friends did play at the Plymouth Theatre
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
The Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 236 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan named for Gerald Schoenfeld....
in 1943. The show starred Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
and Raymond Massey
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...
.
Smith spent most of her years as a writer living in a townhouse
Townhouse
A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where a plaque now commemorates her occupation.
Later life
During the 1940s, Smith and her husband moved to the United States due to legal difficulties with Beesley's stand as a conscientious objectorConscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
. While living in the U.S. and feeling homesick for England, she wrote her first novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
in Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Doylestown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 8,380. The borough is the county seat of Bucks County.- History :...
: I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle is Dodie Smith's first novel, written in the 1940s during a sojourn in America. Smith was already an established playwright and later became famous for authoring the children's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians....
(1948). She and Beesley also spent time in Beverly Hills, Malibu, and Wilton, Connecticut
Wilton, Connecticut
Wilton is a town nestled in the Norwalk River Valley in southwestern Connecticut in the United States. It is located in Fairfield County. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 18,062. In 2007, it was voted as one of CNN Money's "Best Places to Live" in the United States.Located along...
.
During their American interlude, the Beesleys became friends with writers Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
, Charles Brackett
Charles Brackett
Charles William Brackett was an American novelist, screenwriter, and film producer.-Biography:Born on November 26, 1892 in Saratoga Springs, New York, Charles William Brackett was the son of New York State Senator, lawyer, and banker Edgar Truman Brackett...
, and John Van Druten. In Smith's memoirs, she credits Alec with making the suggestion to Van Druten that he adapt Isherwood's Sally Bowles
Sally Bowles
Sally Bowles is a fictional character created by Christopher Isherwood. She originally appeared in Isherwood's 1937 novella Sally Bowles published by Hogarth Press. The story was later republished in the novel Goodbye to Berlin...
story Goodbye to Berlin
Goodbye to Berlin
Goodbye to Berlin is a 1939 short novel by Christopher Isherwood set in pre-Nazi Germany. It is often published together with Mr Norris Changes Trains in a collection called The Berlin Stories.-Details:...
into a play (the Van Druten play, I Am a Camera
I Am a Camera
I Am a Camera is a 1951 Broadway play inspired by Christopher Isherwood's novel Goodbye to Berlin which is part of The Berlin Stories...
, later became the musical Cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
). In her memoirs, Smith acknowledges having received writing advice from her friend, the novelist A. J. Cronin
A. J. Cronin
Archibald Joseph Cronin was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known works are Hatter's Castle, The Stars Look Down, The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years, all of which were adapted to film. He also created the Dr...
.
Her first play back in London, Letter from Paris, was an adaption of Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
's short novel The Reverberator
The Reverberator
The Reverberator is a short novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in Macmillan's Magazine in 1888 and then as a book later the same year...
. She followed the adapting style of William Archibald
William Archibald (playwright)
William Archibald was a Trinidadian-born playwright, dancer, choreographer and director, whose stage adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw was made into the 1961 British horror film The Innocents....
's The Innocents
The Innocents (play)
The Innocents is a 1976 play written by William Archiblad. The show opened at the Morosco Theatre on October 21, 1976 and closed on October 30, 1976 after 12 performances.-Setting:...
(adapted from The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story.Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive...
) and Ruth and Augustus Goetz's The Heiress
The Heiress (play)
The Heiress is a 1947 play by American playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from the 1880 Henry James novel, Washington Square. The play opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on 29 September 1947 directed by Jed Harris starring Wendy Hiller, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Cookson...
(adapted from Washington Square
Washington Square (novel)
Washington Square is a short novel by Henry James. Originally published in 1880 as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper's New Monthly Magazine, it is a structurally simple tragicomedy that recounts the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father...
).
Death
Beesly died in 1987 and Smith in 1990. She was cremated and her ashes scattered in the wind. She had named Julian BarnesJulian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes is a contemporary English writer, and winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, for his book The Sense of an Ending...
as her literary executor, a job she felt would not be much work. Barnes writes of the complicated task in his essay "Literary Executions", revealing among other things how he secured the return of the film rights to I Capture the Castle, which had been held by Disney since 1949 Smith's personal papers are housed in Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, and include manuscripts, photographs, artwork, and correspondence (including letters from Christopher Isherwood
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
and John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
).
Legacy
Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One DalmatiansThe Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith. A sequel entitled The Starlight Barking continues from the end of the first novel....
(1956) (which was adapted into the Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
One Hundred and One Dalmatians, often abbreviated as 101 Dalmatians, is a 1961 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith...
). Her novel I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle
I Capture the Castle is Dodie Smith's first novel, written in the 1940s during a sojourn in America. Smith was already an established playwright and later became famous for authoring the children's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians....
also has a devoted following (a film version
I Capture the Castle (film)
I Capture The Castle is a 2003 film directed by Tim Fywell. It is based on the 1948 novel of the same title by Dodie Smith and was adapted to screenplay by Heidi Thomas...
was released in 2003). I Capture the Castle was voted #82 as 'one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels' by the British public as part of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's The Big Read (2003).
Plays
- Autumn CrocusAutumn Crocus (play)Autumn Crocus is a 1931 play by the British writer Dodie Smith. It was Smith's first play written under the pseudonym of C.L. Anthony. It follows a single schoolteacher who goes on holiday to the Tyrol and falls in love with the married owner of the hotel in which she is staying.Directed by Basil...
(1931) - ServiceService (play)Service is a 1932 play by the British writer Dodie Smith. It is set around the lives of the Service family who own a department store and whose fortunes are hit by the Great Depression.-Adaptation:...
(1932) - Touch Wood (1934)
- Call It A Day (1935)
- Bonnet Over the Windmill (1937)
- Dear OctopusDear OctopusDear Octopus is a 1943 British comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Wilding and Celia Johnson. It is based on a 1938 play Dear Octopus written by Dodie Smith...
(1938) - Lovers and Friends (1943)
- Letter from Paris (1952)
- I Capture the Castle (1954)
- These People, Those Books (1958)
- Amateur Means Lover (1961)
Novels
- I Capture the CastleI Capture the CastleI Capture the Castle is Dodie Smith's first novel, written in the 1940s during a sojourn in America. Smith was already an established playwright and later became famous for authoring the children's classic The Hundred and One Dalmatians....
(1949) - The Hundred and One DalmatiansThe Hundred and One DalmatiansThe Hundred and One Dalmatians, or the Great Dog Robbery is a 1956 children's novel by Dodie Smith. A sequel entitled The Starlight Barking continues from the end of the first novel....
(1956) - The New Moon with the Old (1963)
- The Town in Bloom (1965)
- It Ends with Revelations (1967)
- The Starlight BarkingThe Starlight BarkingThe Starlight Barking is a 1967 children's novel by Dodie Smith. It is a sequel to The Hundred and One Dalmatians.Although The Hundred and One Dalmatians has been adapted into two films , and each version has a sequel film , neither sequel film has...
(1967) - A Tale of Two Families (1970)
- The Girl from the Candle-lit Bath (1978)
- The Midnight Kittens (1978)
Autobiography
- Look Back with Love: a Manchester Childhood (1974)
- Look Back with Mixed Feelings (1978)
- Look Back with Astonishment (1979)
- Look Back with Gratitude (1985)
Screenplays
- The UninvitedThe Uninvited (1944 film)The Uninvited is a 1944 American supernatural mystery/romance film directed by Lewis Allen. It is based on the Dorothy Macardle novel Uneasy Freehold.Charles Lang was nominated for a 1945 Academy Award for Best Black and White Cinematography.-Plot:...
(1944), written by Smith and Frank PartosFrank PartosFrank Partos an American screenwriter, of Hungarian Jewish origin, and an early executive committee member of the Screen Actors Guild, which he helped found.-Career:... - Darling, How Could You!Darling, How Could You!Darling, How Could You! is a 1951 comedy film directed by Mitchell Leisen. It stars Joan Fontaine and John Lund.-Cast:*Joan Fontaine as Mrs. Alice Grey*John Lund as Dr. Robert Grey*Mona Freeman as Amy Grey*Peter Hansen as Dr. Steven Clark...
(1951), written by Smith and Lesser SamuelsLesser SamuelsLesser Samuels enjoyed a 20 year career as a Hollywood screenwriter.He is best known for back-to-back Oscar nominations for the racial drama No Way Out in 1950 and Billy Wilder's lacerating critique of tabloid journalism Ace in the Hole the following year.Samuels also wrote and served as associate...
Movies adapted from her works
- Looking ForwardLooking Forward (film)Looking Forward is a 1933 American drama film starring Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone. Based on the Dodie Smith play Service, it depicts the desperate struggle of a London department store owner to save his business during the Great Depression....
(1933), based on Service - Autumn Circus (1934)
- Call It a Day (1937)
- Dear OctopusDear OctopusDear Octopus is a 1943 British comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Wilding and Celia Johnson. It is based on a 1938 play Dear Octopus written by Dodie Smith...
(1943) - One Hundred and One DalmatiansOne Hundred and One DalmatiansOne Hundred and One Dalmatians, often abbreviated as 101 Dalmatians, is a 1961 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith...
(1961) - 101 Dalmatians (1996)
- 102 Dalmatians102 Dalmatians102 Dalmatians is a 2000 live-action film, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and starring Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. It is the sequel to 101 Dalmatians, a live-action remake of the 1961 Disney animated feature of the same name. In the film, Cruella de Vil attempts to steal puppies for her...
(2000) - I Capture the CastleI Capture the Castle (film)I Capture The Castle is a 2003 film directed by Tim Fywell. It is based on the 1948 novel of the same title by Dodie Smith and was adapted to screenplay by Heidi Thomas...
(2003)
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
Pongo, the canine protagonist of The Hundred and One Dalmatians, was named after Smith's own pet DalmatianDalmatian (dog)
The Dalmatian is a breed of dog whose roots are often said to trace back to Dalmatia, a region of Croatia where the first illustrations of the dog have been found. The Dalmatian is noted for its unique black- or brown-spotted coat and was mainly used as a carriage dog in its early days...
, the first of nine.
Smith got the idea for her novel when a friend remarked at her own dalmatians: “Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat!”