Hannah Margaret Mary Closs (1905-1953) was an art critic and novelist. She wrote three novels and a book on aesthetics.

Biography

Hannah Margaret Mary Closs (née Priebsch) was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, London, the daughter of German scholar

Robert Priebsch Robert Priebsch (1866-1935) was a German professor and philologist. From 1898 to 1931 he was a professor at University College London. With one of his students, William Edward Collinson, W. E. Collinson, he published ''The German Language'' (1934) ...

(1866–1935). She wrote a book on aesthetics, ''Her Art and Life'' (1936), and a re-working of the Tristan story (1940). Her three novels, republished as the Tarn Trilogy, treat

Catharism Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. Follow ...

. She married

August Closs August Max Closs (9 August 1898 – 21 June 1990) was a professor of German studies. Born in Austria, he studied German and English language and literature, and in 1929 moved to London. There he taught at University College, and became friend ...

, an Austrian-born professor of German Studies, in 1931. They had one daughter, Elizabeth Closs Traugott, who was a professor of linguistics and English at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, from 1970 to 2003. She fell ill with toxaemia and died in Bristol General Hospital.

Bibliography

Novels

*''High are the Mountains'' (1945) *''And Sombre are the Valleys'' (1949, republished as ''Deep are the Valleys'', 1960) *''The Silent Tarn'' (1955)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Closs, Hannah Margaret Mary 1905 births 1953 deaths English art critics Novelists from London 20th-century English novelists Writers from the London Borough of Camden People from Hampstead