Rosalind Murray (1890–1967, aged 76-77) was a British-born writer and novelist known for ''The Happy Tree'' and ''The Leading Note''. Murray's parents were the classical scholar

Gilbert Murray George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece ...

(1866-1957) and Lady Mary Henrietta Howard (1865–1956), daughter of

George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle (12 August 184316 April 1911), known as George Howard until 1889, was an English aristocrat, peer, politician, and painter. He was the last Earl of Carlisle to own Castle Howard. Early life Howard wa ...

. She was one of five children, and had three brothers,

Basil Murray Basil Andrew Murray (1902–1937), was a British editor, journalist and Liberal Party politician. Background Murray was the second son of the scholar Gilbert Murray and Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the 9th Earl of Carlisle. He was educated ...

, Denis and Stephen, and one sister, Agnes Elizabeth. During her childhood, Rosalind spent time abroad in Italy for the purposes of her health, as letters written by her father reveal: he wrote to David Murray in 1899 that she was "absolutely forbidden to live in Glasgow or anywhere near." When she was three years old her father wrote to her grandmother, "It is a great help she is so intelligent", and he supported her literary activity from an early age. Her first novel, ''The Leading Note'', was published before she turned twenty, in 1910. E.M. Forster wrote of it to Malcolm Darling in 1911, "The best novels I have come across in the past year are Rosalind Murray's ''The Leading Note'' ..and

Wedgwood Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapid ...

's ''Shadow of a Titan''." This was followed by ''Moonseed'' (1911), ''Unstable Ways'' (1914), ''The Happy Tree'' (1926, republished in 2014 by

Persephone Books ''Persephone Books'' is an independent publisher based in Bath, England. Founded in 1999 by Nicola Beauman, Persephone Books reprints works largely by women writers of the late 19th and 20th century, though a few books by men are included. The ...

) and ''Hard Liberty'' (1929), as well as ''The Greeks'' (1931), a history book for children with a preface written by her father. Rosalind married historian

Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's Colleg ...

(1889-1975) in 1913. They had three sons together: Antony, Lawrence and

Philip Toynbee Theodore Philip Toynbee (25 June 1916 – 15 June 1981) was a British writer and communist. He wrote experimental novels, and distinctive verse novels, one of which was an epic called ''Pantaloon'', a work in several volumes, only some of whi ...

. Rosalind and Arnold divorced in 1946. In 1933, Rosalind converted to Catholicism which saw the beginning of her religious writing, including ''The Good Pagan's Failure'' (1939), ''Time and the Timeless'' (1942), ''The Life of Faith'' (1943), ''The Forsaken Fountain'' (1948) and ''The Further Journey: In My End Is My Beginning'' (1953).WorldCat: http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AMurray%2C+Rosalind&qt=hot_author.

References

External links

''The Happy Tree'' at Persephone Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Rosalind 1890 births 1967 deaths 20th-century English novelists English Roman Catholic writers English women novelists 20th-century English women writers Toynbee family