Scottish literature has had a major impact on the shaping of that country's culture and national identity. The background and provenance of hundreds of the greatest Scottish literary figures of the past have been published on the internet - from John Barbour in the 14th century to Eric Linklater who died in 1974. But among a hugely distinguished canon of Scottish writers, there are too few females.
Annie S Swan's Early Life
The Society of Women Writers and Journalists give mention to one of their early former Presidents, Annie Shepherd Swan who was born in at Mountskip in Midlothian in 1859. One of seven children, Swan's family was broken up upon their mother's death and their father's remarriage, Swan was a remarkably prodigious writer, schooled at home by a governess. Her serious writing began when she was but a teenager, her first novel Ups and Downs being finished when she was 19. Disappointingly, she was unsuccessful. In 1883 Swan married a schoolmaster, James Burnett Smith who, due to lack of money, had given up the idea of a medical career. She encouraged him to resume his studies, supporting him as best she could by her pen. Upon her husband's graduation, they moved to England, though maintaining a holiday home in Fife.
Overnight Success
Swan's second novel Aldersyde met with almost overnight success. The background to this book served as something of a blueprint for her later novels with their recurrent themes upholding 'hearth and home' and the virtues of a good woman. Although Swan had sold the copyright of Aldersyde for a mere £50, her public looked forward to future novels and this launched her on a prolific writing career. Enjoying her huge popularity, she was delighted to write for The People's Friend which she regarded as the mainstay of her writing life. She was also a regular contributor to other periodicals. Always vague about how many books she had had published, the subsequent bibliographies list over 200.BSwan's contemporary writer, Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897), when reviewing Carlowrie, in 1884, complained that the author's stories presented a distorted view of Scottish life, but the comments were rebutted by Swan when she replied that she wrote "almost entirely of the life she knew.
Tremendous Literary Productivity
By the turn of the twentieth century, Swan's output was more than 30 books comprising novels, many of which were serialised, short stories, nonfiction books on etiquette advice, religious and politics. In The Juridical Review published in 1901, a report stated that her books were the most favoured among female inmates in Irish prisons. By 1906, she was profiled in Helen Black's Notable Women Authors of the Day.
Suffragettes
Taking a major part in the suffrage cause, Swan supported the movement by writing, lecturing and travelling - while still continuing to produce the wish-fulfilment stories - so beloved by her readers across the world. She visited America in January 1918 and again after following the Great War,
Herbert Hoover - Head of the US Food Administration
Meeting Herbert Hoover had a fundamental effect on Swan and her lectures on the necessity for conserving food on the national home front were well attended. For her trip, she wrote two plays and a book setting out the cultural differences between women in Britain and the United States titled As Others See Her: An Englishwoman's Impressions of the American Woman in War Time (1919).
The 1920s and Swan's Halfpenny Weekly
In 1924, Swan wrote a half penny weekly The Annie Swan Annual. After her husband's death in 1927. the novelist returned to Scotland settling in Gullane, East Lothian. She was honoured by the King at Buckingham Palace when she was awarded the coveted CBE in recognition of her immense contribution to literature. She died at Gullane on 17 June 1943 and The Letters of Annie S. Swan (1945), was edited by Mildred Robertson Nicoll and published posthumously two years later.
Following Swan's death, there has been surprisingly little interest in her life and works. However, over the last decade, several of her novels have been reprinted.
Sources
- Reid, Alan and Osborne, Brian D Discovering Scottish Writers, pages 86/87, published by the Scottish Cultural Press and Scottish Library Assocation (1997)
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