WOMAN NOVELIST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22928, 5 January 1938, Page 11

WOMAN NOVELIST

DEATH IN ENGLAND " RITA'S " LITERARY RECORD LONDON, Dee. 3 The death is reported of Mrs. Desmond Humphreys, better known as the British novelist "Rita," who has been writing for the past 50 years. Her "Grandmother" trilogy is perhaps her best-known work. Mrs. W. Desmond Humphreys, who, under the name of "Rita," was one of the most popular of' Bfiiish ! women novelists, was a daughter of Mr. John Gilbert Gollan and was born ai Gollanfield, Inverness-shire. She was educated in Sydney, New South Wales, to which her parents took-hpr when she wss a child. "Rita" always kept her age a secret, but in her autobiography she stated that when Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Consort, died, she was in Sydney. That was in 1861. From childhood "Rita" could write with facility, never lacking ideas or an easy flow of words. She started writing . novels as a sanctuary from trouble at home, and a broken engagement. Returning to England-whei\ still ymder 20, she had her first novel published. Others followed rapidly, manv of them based on her life in Australia.;' They sold well, but. her;:publisher, John Maxwell, Miss Braddon's husband,drove hard bargains with her. He:: obtained I from • her the copyright of sik novels ! for less than £9 each and, although 200,000 *copits were sold, she received less than £2OO from them aIL These six books are selling to. this day. "Rita's" first great triumph was 1 with "Souls," a scathing attack on the sins of society. This appeared in 1903 and created a great stir. .The firm then publishing her Dooks urged her fig continue on that theme, but she had;the courage to refuse and to venture into new fields. During her long career she showed that she had a. correct measure of public taste. Her later stories wese chiefly founded on ideas and events of the time, but, though they invariably sold well, she .always complained Hhat her profits from them were small. In all, she published about 60 books. The one which she declared to be her last was her autobiography, which, under the title of "Recollections of a Literary Life," appeared in February, 1936. "Rita" was married twice. Her first husband, whose name she failed, mention in her autobiography or elsewhere, was the son of a German barom Her second was W. Desmona Humphreys, of Ballin Temple, Corkf Ireland, and the union was a vjfy happy one. * . -