Mary De Morgan: a writer, just like us
Marilyn Pemberton • 30 October 2020
She was misunderstood, underpaid and overshadowed.
When I was researching Victorian fairy-tale writers for my PhD I “discovered” Mary De Morgan. Just like many of us in NAWG, she was misunderstood, underpaid and overshadowed.
Mary was the youngest of seven children, born in 1850 into a family of intellectuals and non-conformists. She moved in William Morris’s artistic and political circle. Mary is best known today as a writer of fairy-tales but she also wrote short stories, some of which were published, others are gathering dust in Senate House Library. Mary also tried her hand at a two-volume novel called A Choice of Chance but the disappointment of poor reviews caused her to abandon attempting another. She also edited her mother’s reminiscences, Threescore Years and Ten: Reminiscences of the Late Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan” and wrote serious articles on such diverse subjects as “Co-operation in England in 1889,” “The New Trades-Unionism and Socialism in England,” “The Jewish Immigrant in East London,” and “The Education of Englishmen.”
It does not seem likely that Mary made sufficient money from her writing alone. In 1876 she received £14 18s 6d, being a third of the year’s profit from the sale of her first volume of fairy tales, On a Pincushion – another third going to the illustrator and the other third to the publishers.
Mary was a member of the Women’s Franchise League and she signed the Declaration in Favour of Women’s Suffrage. She was an independent woman who had very strong views on the society in which she lived and the place of the woman within it. She could have written political articles, spoken at rallies and waved flags, but she chose instead to make her voice heard and her opinions known through her writing.
Mary was the youngest of seven children, born in 1850 into a family of intellectuals and non-conformists. She moved in William Morris’s artistic and political circle. Mary is best known today as a writer of fairy-tales but she also wrote short stories, some of which were published, others are gathering dust in Senate House Library. Mary also tried her hand at a two-volume novel called A Choice of Chance but the disappointment of poor reviews caused her to abandon attempting another. She also edited her mother’s reminiscences, Threescore Years and Ten: Reminiscences of the Late Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan” and wrote serious articles on such diverse subjects as “Co-operation in England in 1889,” “The New Trades-Unionism and Socialism in England,” “The Jewish Immigrant in East London,” and “The Education of Englishmen.”
It does not seem likely that Mary made sufficient money from her writing alone. In 1876 she received £14 18s 6d, being a third of the year’s profit from the sale of her first volume of fairy tales, On a Pincushion – another third going to the illustrator and the other third to the publishers.
Mary was a member of the Women’s Franchise League and she signed the Declaration in Favour of Women’s Suffrage. She was an independent woman who had very strong views on the society in which she lived and the place of the woman within it. She could have written political articles, spoken at rallies and waved flags, but she chose instead to make her voice heard and her opinions known through her writing.
At the beginning of the new century she went to live in Egypt where she became a directress of a girls’ reformatory. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 57 and is buried in Cairo. There is no photograph of Mary that can be 100% authenticated, so all we have are her words to know her by.
I have written her biography: Out of the Shadows: The Life and Works of Mary De Morgan,
which can be purchased at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Shadows-Life-Works-Morgan/dp/1443841951
I have also written a novel based on her life and filled in the gaps of my knowledge with my imagination: The Jewel Garden can be purchased at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jewel-Garden-Marilyn-Pemberton-ebook/dp/B079ZY877T
e-mail: marilyn.pemberton@yahoo.co.uk
Website: https://marilynpemberton.wixsite.com/author
Blog - writingtokeepsane.wordpress.com
I have also written a novel based on her life and filled in the gaps of my knowledge with my imagination: The Jewel Garden can be purchased at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jewel-Garden-Marilyn-Pemberton-ebook/dp/B079ZY877T
e-mail: marilyn.pemberton@yahoo.co.uk
Website: https://marilynpemberton.wixsite.com/author
Blog - writingtokeepsane.wordpress.com
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Here is the winner of our spooky ghost / horror story NAWG 2025 Autumn 250-word Flash Fiction competition . It ran from Friday 3rd to Friday 31st October, First, second, and third place entries will also be published in Link magazine. See the website HERE The prize of £25 for the winning entry goes to SUSAN KING for her story: RUSSIAN ROULETTE. I dread this day. Pumpkins with grinning faces and kids running about dressed as ghosts. Ghosts don’t wear costumes, they’d know that if they’d seen one. I can cope with all that – it’s the knocking on doors blackmailing adults into giving them treats that frightens me. Don’t they know how dangerous this is? Agnes has a bucket of Cadbury Heroes by the door. Her children have grown up and left home which is a relief to me, I can tell you I want to yell at the little ones who stand with expectant faces when she opens the door. Bugger off, I want to shout. But of course, I can’t. You can’t imagine the horror of watching her fill her syringe and pierce the wrapper of a chocolate bar, plunging the needle into the gooey inside and withdrawing it empty. You don’t know what it’s like to watch helpless as she smiles and hands out the sweets. She’s not daft enough to poison each one. For her it’s a game of Russian roulette. She waits for the post on the village Facebook page. She reads the hundreds of messages of sympathy with glee, scrolls slowly through emojis of crying faces, pink hearts and praying hands. She notes the date of the funeral and gets out her dark clothes. It’s the same black dress and coat she wore my cremation. A human black widow spider, she dispensed with me after our children were born. It’s just other people’s children she dislikes.
Members can go to the Members Only page (you'll need the password) and read stories that were a little too long to fit in the normal Link magazine - see the section marked 'Fiction Special' --> HERE