Enid Bagnold was born in England in 1889. A daughter of an officer in the Royal Engineers, she spent her childhood in a converted coffee plantation in Jamaica. She was educated in England at the famous Huxley school, which was run by the mother of Aldous Huxley. She was “finished” in Marburg, Germany and Lausanne, Switzerland. After a year in Paris she made her debut in Woolwich, one of the fashionable London suburbs.
A far from ordinary debutante, she became an ardent suffragette; studied painting with the famous Walter Sickert, showing her work at the New English Art Club; and counted the Georgian Poets (i.e., Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, D. H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare and Siegfried Sassoon) among her circle of friends.
It was during World War I that Bagnold’s literary gifts were first revealed. Her journal, kept while acting as a hospital aide, so impressed Prince Emanuel Bibesco that he suggested it was worth publishing. Diary Without Dates was the result and brought her both literary recognition and dismissal from the hospital for “breach of discipline.”
At the age of 30, she married Sir Roderick Jones, owner and managing director of Reuters News Agency. As Lady Roderick Jones, she and her husband lived in a 21-room estate in Rottingdean, England.
Americans first came to know her for her novel “Serena Blandish,” a best-seller published in 1924, which was adapted into a highly successful play by S.N. Berhman. National Velvet, the novel that followed in 1935, was another huge success and has the distinction, of course, of introducing Elizabeth Taylor to the silver screen in the movie version.
Bagnold wrote her first play at the age of 53. Lottie Dundass (1942) premiered in the United States before it was presented in London the following year. The same scenario was followed with her next, and perhaps most well known play, The Chalk Garden. Written in 1953, the play was brought to New York by Irene Selznick. After out-of-town tryouts in New Haven and Boston, the production opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on October 26, 1955. Originally directed by George Cukor, he was replaced by Albert Marre before the Broadway opening. The cast included Gladys Cooper as Mrs. St. Maugham, the Irish newcomer, Siobhan McKenna as Miss Madrigal (brought over from London to do the role), Marian Seldes as Olivia, and Fritz Weaver, as Maitland. Cecil Beaton did the sets and costumes. It closed in March, 1956, after running a total of 182 performances. The play was nominated for a Tony award for Best Play; Gladys Cooper and Siobhan McKenna were nominated for Best Actress, Fritz Weaver for Best Featured Actor, and Albert Marre for Best Director. It won in no category, but Mr. Weaver did win the Theatre World Award for his performance.
Ms. Bagnolds other plays include The Chinese Prime Minister (1964), and a Matter of Gravity (1975).
She died in 1981 at the age of 91.
