Mary Stewart on success

"I can sit and talk happily to people about books and authors without realizing that I am myself the author of nine books... As a matter of fact, it still startles me to see my name on books, or to realize that it means anything to anyone. Yet, judging by the letters I receive from readers, it does."

Quoted in:
Smaridge, Norah. Famous British Women Novelists. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1967. Page 122.

Apologies

Sorry for the long, long, long time between posts! I haven't given up on this blog, I've just been too busy to give it the time it deserves. But I get so many nice comments and emails that I really want to keep it up better. So I will try!

This Rough Magic in the Chicago Tribune, 1964

I just came across a condensation of This Rough Magic that appeared in the Chicago Tribune! They published the story in 18 installments running from Nov. 8 - Nov. 24, 1964, which must have been just as the book was released in the U.S. The illustrations are very 1960-ish.

The quality of the images isn't that great, seeing as they're from a newspaper, but it's still fun. I especially love the taglines that they put at the top of each installment: "Bullets Shatter a Peaceful Vacation," "Spiro Tells of His Brush with Death," "Keeping a Killer off his Victim's Trail." And the best of all: "Suspense Winds an Ever Tighter Coil as Lucy Waring Creeps up like a Ghost from the Sea on the Spy who Tried to Kill Her".

I'm posting the first two pages, as I think that's all I'm allowed due to copyright. I located these images using the ProQuest Historical Newspaper database.





Click on the images to view them larger.

Links of interest

Thanks to author Dee Davis, we finally have a blurb for Wind Off the Small Isles! I've been searching for years for a copy of Wind that had the jacket intact and have never been able to find one. It's Mary Stewart's only novella, which was published in the UK but not in the US. I read it just recently and will try to post a review soon.

Check out Dee's website -- she's an author of romantic suspense who cites Stewart as a source of inspiration. As a tribute, she included references for one of Mary Stewart's books in each of her first fifteen books.

Niranjana Iyer has written a great post about Mary Stewart on her blog. My favorite bit: "Stewart’s heroines are never passive—they usually tumble into adventure in the course of aiding the vulnerable (a child or a wounded animal are favorite hooks). The trouble they land in is never of their own making, but they are nonetheless eager to help. They are also resourceful and practical and don’t care too much about their appearance. A Mary Stewart heroine would always have spare batteries in the kitchen drawer and sheets flapping whitely on a line out back, and her hair would never fall in her eyes."

And AAR has posted several great reviews for Mary Stewart books in the last few weeks: My Brother Michael, Madame Will You Talk, and Wildfire at Midnight.

The winner is....

Rylie! I'll be emailing you shortly to get your mailing address.

Thanks to all who entered! I wish I could send out copies to you all. For those of you who haven't read Mary Stewart, get to your local public library! Most libraries of decent size should have some Stewarts.

Happy Birthday to Mary Stewart!

Today is Mary Stewart's 93rd birthday. We send our best wishes to her for a happy day!

In honor of the event, we'd like to do a little GIVEAWAY! Chicago Review Press has been reissuing some Mary Stewart titles in trade paperback editions with lovely covers. The lastest is The Ivy Tree.

The publisher was nice enough to send us a review copy -- we, in turn, will pass it along to one of you. Simply leave a comment and you'll be entered in a drawing to win it. (International is fine, but please be aware that I will send it by the cheapest, slowest delivery method available to me. I'm a poor grad student, you know.) We'll pick a name out of the hat this Sunday.

Don't know what The Ivy Tree is about?! Read the blurb! It's so fabulous. Believe me.

Contacting Mary Stewart

We've gotten several emails from people asking if we know how to get fan mail to Mary Stewart. I'm afraid I don't have a very good answer. I've never tried to write to her. Has anyone ever been successful in getting mail to her?

The only suggestion I have is to write to her c/o her publisher. Her American publisher is HarperCollins. Their contact page says that they will forward fan mail on to their authors. You should address the envelope as follows:

Mary Stewart
c/o Author mail, 7th Floor
HarperCollins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022

Her British publisher, Hodder, does not have any info on their website about contacting authors. They might forward mail as well, but I'm not sure. I've written emails to them a couple times about it, but haven't gotten any response.

If anyone has any other info to share, please do!