Gladys Malvern (July 17, 1897 – November 16, 1962) was an American

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

and

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

actress, radio script writer, and writer. As a child actress, she appeared in the 1908 Broadway production of ''The Man Who Stood Still''. Gladys often collaborated on stage with her younger sister

Corinne Malvern Corinne Malvern (December 13, 1901 – November 9, 1956) was an American commercial artist, active as a fashion advertising artist and illustrator of children's books between the early 1930s and her death in 1956. She painted magazine covers an ...

, who also illustrated her books.Susan Houston, ''Foreword'' in ''Behold Your Queen! A Story of Esther'' by Gladys Malvern, Special Edition Books, 2011 Gladys Malvern is perhaps best remembered for her prolific writing of historical and

biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fict ...

s for young adults, including ''The Foreigner'', ''According to Thomas'' and ''Behold Your Queen!''.

Biography

Gladys Malvern was born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.wardrobe mistress. She was raised as a ''stage child'' by her mother in New York, New Jersey,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, and California.

Theater years (1900–1920)

Young Gladys Malvern won her first role on a New York stage at the age of three. In 1908, at age 11, Gladys appeared at the Circle Theater on

in ''The Man Who Stood Still''. By 1910, the two Malvern sisters were working regularly in traveling vaudeville productions, as well as in the burgeoning New York

movie industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...

; Gladys as an ingenue and Corinne as "fairies, babies, witches, and other funny little people." By the age of 14, Gladys began playing leading roles in traveling stock theater companies. Her fellow troupers called her "the youngest stock leading woman in the business." When interviewed about this period in her life, Malvern is quoted as saying:

''…until I was twenty-one, home to me was anywhere—hotels, trains, boarding houses; for my sister, Corinne Malvern, and I were ‘stage children.’ When I stopped being a ‘stage child,’ I became what they called an ingenue, and then a
leading lady A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead (), plays the role of the protagonist of a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typica ...
. But by this time I had decided I didn't like wandering about, and I began to think how nice it would be to have a home like other people.''''Autobiographical Sketch of Gladys Malvern'', The Junior Book of Authors, Second Edition, H.W. Wilson Publishers, 1951

Life in Los Angeles (1921–1933)

During the 1920s, the Malvern family moved to Los Angeles, where Corinne worked as a fashion artist, and Gladys began working at a department store. Later, Gladys began writing

copy Copy may refer to: *Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact **Cut, copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing **File copying **Photocopying, a pr ...

for advertising agencies, while her sister Corinne studied art under

Theodore Lukits Theodore Nikolai Lukits (November 26, 1897 – January 20, 1992) was a Romanian American portrait and landscape painter. His initial fame came from his portraits of glamorous actresses of the silent film era, but since his death, his Asian-inspir ...

. According to census records, at some point during this time period Gladys married, and subsequently divorced. After the publication and success of her first few novels, Gladys moved back to New York with her sister; both of them working from an apartment which overlooked the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. Of this period in her life, Malvern was quoted as saying:

''Advertising is a very good business. I liked it immensely and stuck with it for about twelve years. But after work, being very stubborn in this matter, I continued to write. And I wrote. And I wrote. Finally—oh, after I'd torn up any number of manuscripts—I sold a book… And somehow or other I began to feel encouraged. In fact, after I'd sold three novels, I felt so brave I gave up my advertising job. We sold the lamps and the easy chairs and most of the books, and came blithely to New York.

Novels for young adults (1934–1962)

Having learned the discipline of writing from her 12 years as an advertising writer and

copy editor Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual of ...

, Malvern produced several successful novels for young adults in the first years following her return to New York. In 1943, Gladys Malvern penned ''Curtain Going Up'', a widely read biography of 20th-century actress and legend, Katharine Cornell. The same year, Malvern won the ''Julia Ellsworth Ford Foundation Award'' for the historical novel, ''Valiant Minstrel: The Story of Sir

Henry Lauder Sir Henry Lauder (; 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950)Russell, Dave"Lauder, Sir Henry (1870–1950)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 27 April 2014 was a S ...

''. Gladys Malvern continued writing biographies of other performers, including Joseph Jefferson,

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...

and Rossini. She also occasionally wrote under the pseudonyms Vahrah von Klopp and Sabra Lee Corbin. Malvern corresponded with actress Helen Hayes in 1944 about a potential biographical story for American Girl magazine, but never published her story. It is now available as a 12-page part of the ''Malvern Papers'', currently held at the New York Public Library in the "Performing Arts Research Collection". In 1958, Malvern's ''Behold Your Queen!'', a story of the Biblical character of

Esther Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...

, was a main selection of the

Junior Literary Guild Junior Library Guild, formerly the Junior Literary Guild, is a commercial book club devoted to juvenile literature. It was created in 1929 as one of the enterprises of the Literary Guild, an adult book club created in 1927 by Samuel W. Craig and H ...

. Malvern wrote several other Biblical stories, including ''The Foreigner - A Story of Ruth'', ''According to Thomas'', ''Tamar'' and ''Saul's Daughter''. Gladys Malvern never returned to the stage, but she would go on to write more than 40 successful historical novels, including ''Patriot's Daughter - The Story of Anastasia Lafayette'' and ''Dear Wife - A Story of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

'', many of them illustrated by her sister Corinne, who died in 1956. Gladys moved to

Weston, Connecticut Weston is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,354 at the 2020 census with the highest median household income in Connecticut. The town is served by Route 57 and Route 53, both of which run through the ...

, where she continued to write until her own death in November 1962.

Posthumous editions

Several novels were published

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ''Posthumous'' (E ...

Vanguard Press The Vanguard Press (1926–1988) was a United States publishing house established with a $100,000 grant from the left wing American Fund for Public Service, better known as the Garland Fund. Throughout the 1920s, Vanguard Press issued an array of ...

in 1971, including ''The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' and ''The World of Lady Jane Grey''. However, by 1990, most of the books authored by Gladys Malvern had gone out of print, and could only be found in auctions and the rare book market. In 2011, several Malvern titles were re-issued by publisher ''Special Edition Books''. In 2012, many Malvern titles were re-issued as interactive ebooks by YA publisher Beebliome Books, including titles such as ''Stephanie and So Great a Love''.

Selected bibliography

*''According to Thomas''. 1947. New York, R.M. McBride & Co. *''Ann Lawrence of Old New York''. 1947. New York, Julian Messner *''Behold Your Queen!'' 1951. New York, Longmans, Green & Co., New York *''Blithe Genius; The Story of Rossini''. 1959. New York, Longmans, Green *''Dancing Star: the Story of Anna Pavlova''. 1942. New York, J. Messner *''Dear Wife''. 1953. New York, Longmans, Green & Co. *''Eric's Girls''. 1949. New York, J. Messner *''Foreigner, The''. 1954. New York, Longmans, Green & Co., *''Gloria, Ballet Dancer''. (A Romance for Young Moderns; also pub. in German as Gloria). 1946. New York, J. Messner, Inc. *''Heart's Conquest''. 1962. Philadelphia, McRae Smith Company *''Hollywood Star''. (A Romance for Young Moderns). 1953. New York, J. Messner *''Jonica's Island''. 1945. New York, Julian Messner, Inc. *''Kin''. 1931 New York, Dodd, Mead. (written as Vahrah von Klopp) *''Mamzelle''. 1955. Philadelphia, McRae Smith *''Patriot's Daughter''. 1960. Philadelphia, McRae Smith Company *''Prima Ballerina''. (A Romance for Young Moderns.) 1951. New York, J. Messner *''Queen's Lady, The''. 1963. McRae Smith Company, Philadelphia (posthumous) *''Rhoda of Cyprus''. 1958. Philadelphia, McRae Smith Company *''Rogues and Vagabonds''. 1959. Philadelphia, McRae Smith Company *''Saul's Daughter''. 1956. New York, Longmans, Green & Co. *''Secret Sign, The''. 1961. Abelard-Schuman, New York *''Six Wives of Henry VIII, The''. 1972. Vanguard Press, Inc., New York (posthumous) *''Stephanie''. 1956. Philadelphia, McRae Smith *''Tamar''. 1952. New York, Longmans, Green & Co. *''The World of Lady Jane Grey''. 1964. New York, Vanguard Press (posthumous) *''There's Always Forever''. 1957. New York, Longmans, Green *''Valiant Minstrel, the Story of Sir Harry Lauder''. 1943. New York, J. Messner, Inc.

References

Additional sources

*''News of the Theaters'', Chicago Daily Tribune, January 22, 1907 *''Autobiographical Sketch of Gladys Malvern'', The Junior Book of Authors, Second Edition, H.W. Wilson Publishers, 1951 *Barbara Sicherman, Carol Hurd Gree, ''Notable American Women: the Modern Period, Volume 4'', Harvard University Press, 1986 *John T. Gillespie, ''Historical Fiction for Young Readers'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008,

External links

*
Gladys Malvern papers, 1944-1957
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malvern, Gladys 1897 births 1962 deaths 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American novelists Actresses from Newark, New Jersey American child actresses American children's writers American stage actresses American women novelists Vaudeville performers Writers from Newark, New Jersey American women children's writers 20th-century American women writers People from Weston, Connecticut Novelists from New Jersey