Everyone knows this face. No matter who you are, where you live, or when you were born, this face and name still have an impact as iconic beauty, class, and talent. BUT, did you know she also wrote novels??!!
Well, you never heard that because she didn't. Not that Elizabeth Taylor, anyway.
The name caught my eye when I read this, in Literary Ladies: "Elizabeth Taylor's Novels — Where to Begin?"
Immediately, my heart reunited with my mother who passed away about 20 years ago. She and I grew up loving movies -- it was a bond. Mom and I were enigmatic best friends...we were complicated, like lots of mothers and daughters. But both of us were/are dreamers, singers, readers, TV and movie junkies, as well as hopeless romantics. We cried and sighed together over old movies.
Well, Mom LOVED Liz Taylor, and I have to say, I do too. She's what I'd expect Cleopatra to have been.
The number of movies she helped elevate to immortality are too MANY. for me to list.
My mom fiercely defended Taylor's talent as on par with her looks since most of the world obsessed over Taylor's dizzying beauty. It still does. Google her name and there are entire sections devoted to her eyes, the way she dressed, the jewelry she wore...the images of Taylor are legion--right up there with Marilyn Monroe.
But, here's the irony, even though her talent was just as epic as her physical beauty, hordes of folks don't remember that. Kind of a vicious cycle for too many woman: not noticed unless you are beautiful and then only remembered for that.
Which, segues back to that NEW-TO-ME author by the same name. mid-century novelist, Elizabeth Taylor.
It bothers me more than a little that I'd never heard of her before. (Maybe you have? If so, please comment on how woefully ignorant I've been--happy to hear I'm a lone idiot about this!).
This, "the other" Elizabeth Taylor, was a prolific author. She was younger than myself when she died, only 64 (1912 – 1975). As a recent cancer survivor, my heart aches for Taylor, since she battled it back when cancer was always a death sentence.
But until then, she was BUSY! Taylor "published seventeen books: four collections of stories, one children’s book, and twelve novels." Her first novel was published in 1945, so she managed all of that in 30 years, as a full-time wife and mother (when husbands didn't do “women's work”)—that's astonishing. In the author's own words:
" I have been writing since I was a child. …I gave up writing when the children were born, except for a few stories printed in obscure magazines… After a while I grew used to children breathing down my neck while I wrote and scribbling on the MS., and have learnt to write (as I have written everything) while answering questions, settling quarrels and cooking dinners. I write slowly and without enjoyment, and think it all out while I am doing the ironing."
Since she seems to have been born to write, why don't more of us know of her work? Not all female authors were overlooked. We all have some beloved favorites, but let's face it, there were not a lot that made it through the mire of expectations of gender roles in the narrow, male-dominated world of publishing that prevailed until recently.
" She writes about it, with characteristic mordancy, in A View of the Harbour (1947): the salacious, bullying librarian—a man—says with breathtaking condescension to the lonely, timorous widow, Lily Wilson, as she takes up a book written by a “woman novelist,”
That’s a fine and powerful story. …No need to be prejudiced against lady novelists. In literature the wind bloweth where it listeth. …Ladies – and you notice I say “ladies” – have their own contribution to make. A nice domestic romance. Why ape men?'" (Mukherjee, Boston Review)
Further, even with the passage of time and broadening of acceptance of female authors everywhere, her married name immediately brought to everyone's minds the image of the gorgeous movie star, just as my first thought upon seeing her name was, and generally is, everyone's and a recurring problem for Taylor. According to the Boston Review,
" A flippant, though not entirely untrue explanation for the mid-20th-century English novelist Elizabeth Taylor’s inexplicable lack of renown has been her name. Imagine going through life bearing the name of one of Hollywood’s most recognizable icons while working in a profession as far removed as possible—as it was then, and especially to her—from the glamour and publicity of the silver screen. Most of my friends, when informed that I was writing an essay on her, exclaimed, “My god, I didn’t know she also wrote!”
So, with no further useless ramblings of mine, let's get down to it. What she wrote; what to start with, and where to find it. Maybe start here, at the beginning, with her first novel!
Here's a list of her novels, in order:
At Mrs Lippincote’s (1945)
Palladian (1946)
A View of the Harbour (1947)
A Wreath of Roses (1949)
The Sleeping Beauty (1953)
Angel (1957)
A Game of Hide and Seek (1958)
In a Summer Season (1961)
The Soul of Kindness (1964)
Mossy Trotter (1967)
The Wedding Group (1968)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1971)
The Devastating Boys (1972)
Blaming (1976)
Audible doesn't seem to have them, but a Google search shows that they are also available in audio form.
Since all of this is new to me and already written about beautifully, I strongly suggest reading Marcie McCauley's " Elizabeth Taylor’s Novels: Where to Begin, Which to Reread?" as well as Neel Mukherjee's "A Fiendish Mood" to learn more about this remarkable author and her works.
Which is what I'm going to end with and get started on this new journey!