Sally Carson (author)
Sally Carson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sylvia Mary Margaret Carson 30 September 1902 Thornton Heath, England |
| Died | 21 June 1941 (aged 38) Leeds, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, playwright |
| Language | English |
| Notable works | Crooked Cross |
Sylvia Mary Margaret Carson (30 September 1902 – 21 June 1941), known as Sally Carson, was an English author whose acclaimed 1934 novel, Crooked Cross, foretold the Nazi threat in Germany.[1] The novel was republished in April 2025 by Persephone Books.[2][3][4][5]
Early life
Carson, who had two older sisters,[1] was born on 30 September 1902 in Thornton Heath, Surrey, England.[6] Her father, Arthur Louis Carson, died four years later and her mother, Charlotte Winstanley Stratford, brought up the family in Dorset.
Literary work
Carson began to write Crooked Cross[a] while on holiday in Bavaria, Germany.[7][1] A dramatised version was premiered at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1935, produced by Herbert Prentice,[b][8] and performed in the Westminster Theatre, in London's West End, starring Anne Firth in 1937.[1][9][10]
According to a 2025 article in The Observer, Crooked Cross “charts the growing disaffection of a group of German youth who feel lost and ignored, and so turn towards a new authoritarian leader” and it “predicted the scale of the Nazi threat”.
She subsequently wrote two follow-up novels, The Prisoner (1936) and A Traveller Came By (1938).[1][4]
Personal life
Carson married the publisher Eric Humphries[2] (1894–1968; his second marriage),[11] son of the eponymous co-founder of Lund Humphries, in London in 1938. They lived in Thorpe, North Yorkshire[11] and had three children. She died of breast cancer on 21 June 1941, aged 38,[6][2] at a nursing home in Leeds.
Notes
- ^ Crooked Cross refers to the shape of the Nazi swastika.[3]
- ^ Prentice's prompt book and a letter to him from Carson are held by the New York Public Library.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d e Thorpe, Vanessa (8 February 2025). "Rediscovered, a young English novelist's warning of the Nazi threat". The Observer. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
- ^ a b c "Sally Carson". Persephone Books. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
- ^ a b Wood, Heloise (2024-12-16). "Persephone Books reprints Sally Carson's 'forgotten masterpiece'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
- ^ a b "Forgotten literary masterpiece about rise of fascism, Crooked Cross, published by Persephone Books" (Press release). Midas PR. 16 December 2024. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
- ^ McHugh, Clare (2025-05-07). "The lost 1934 novel that gave a chilling warning about the horrors of Nazi Germany". BBC News. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
- ^ a b "Family tree of Sylvia Mary Margaret (Sally) Carson". Geneanet.
- ^ Thorpe, Vanessa; Arts, Vanessa Thorpe (8 February 2025). "English writer's forgotten 'masterpiece' predicting rise of Nazis gets new lease of life". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Elkind, Elisabeth. Guide to the Herbert M. Prentice papers 1925–1960 (PDF). The New York Public Library Billy Rose Theatre Division.
- ^ "'Crooked Cross' in London; Play by Sally Carson Concerns Love Tragedy of Nazi Regime". The New York Times. 14 January 1937. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 February 2025.
- ^ "'Crooked Cross' Rehearsed Reading". Persephone Books. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
- ^ a b Behrens, Steven. "Family tree of Eric Beresford Humphries MC OBE [SIC]". Geneanet. Retrieved 8 February 2025.