Josephine Tey

Josephine Tey (pseudonym for Elizabeth Mackintosh; born July 25, 1896 in Inverness , † February 13, 1952 in London ) was a crime writer and playwright. As a playwright, she used the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. Tey led a very secluded life. The few testimonies indicate that she saw herself primarily as a playwright. Her current popularity is based almost exclusively on her crime novels . It is counted in the so-called golden age of the detective novel , a period in which this genre was shaped by storytellers like Agatha Christie , Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh . Her novel The Daughter of Time (German title: Alibi für eine König or Richard der Verleumdete ) was voted the best detective novel of all time by the English authors 'association Crime Writers' Association and was awarded the Grand prix de littérature policière in 1969.

Life

Very little is known about the life of Josephine Tey. She never gave press interviews in her entire life, avoided all forms of public appearance and remained very reserved even with close colleagues and friends. As a result, only the basic facts of their life are known. According to Martha Hailey Dubose, however, something about Josephine Tey can be deduced from her detective novels. So she valued fishing rods and horses, but felt uncomfortable around people. Crowds seem to have caused her particular discomfort. She liked movies and seems to have particularly appreciated American gangster films. She showed little tolerance towards the press and was also skeptical of her own compatriots, the Scots. She belonged to the British middle class and, unlike many of her contemporaries who also wrote crime novels, she largely eschewed characters from the upper class of British society.

Family and childhood

Tey was born in Inverness, Scotland, her parents were Scottish as well. Her father, Colin Macintosh, grew up in a small community that was predominantly farming and fishing, and Scottish Gaelic was spoken. He only learned English during his school days. Colin Macintosh probably moved to Inverness in the early 1890s, where he made a living as a greengrocer. At the age of 29 he married Josephine Horne Macintosh, who was six years his junior. Josephine Tey was the couple's first child. Together with her sisters Jean and Mary, she attended the Royal Academy Inverness, a local school. Because of her good school performance, she seemed predestined for an academic career. However, she decided instead to train as a physical education teacher. Since she could not find a suitable training position as a spectacle wearer in Scotland, she went to Birmingham and was trained at the "Anstey Physical Training College".

Employment and first crime novel

After graduating in 1917, she worked first at a clinic as a physiotherapist and then as a teacher in schools in Nottingham and later in Oban, Scotland . While she was working in Oban, she was injured during physical education class. This experience is reflected, among other things, in her novel Miss Pym Disposes (German title: Tod im College ), published in 1946 . Her further career as a teacher took her to Eastbourne and ultimately Tunbridge Wells. She began writing after she had to quit her regular job in 1923 to initially take care of her mother, who had cancer. After her mother died, she stayed in Inverness to take care of her now disabled father. Her first work appeared in magazines such as the Glasgow Herald, using the pseudonym Gordon Daviot . Her first novel, Kif: An Unvarnished History , was published in 1929, received good reviews, and was also published in North America. Her first detective novel, with which she introduced the protagonist Alan Grant from Scotland Yard, appeared a few months later. She had written it for a writing competition organized by the British publisher Methuen. Still writing under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot, she won the competition and a little later received the Dutton Mystery Prize for this novel in the USA .

Encounter with John Gielgud

John Gielgud, 1936
A production in which Gielgud played Hamlet inspired Tey's first successful play, Richard of Bordeaux

It was more than seven years before Tey wrote her next detective novel. Typical for crime novels of the so-called " Golden Age " was a relatively rigid adherence to rules, such as those summarized by Ronald Knox for the Detection Club , and which Tey found too rigid. She turned to drama writing instead. Their first piece, The Expensive Halo , did not find a producer. She was very successful with her second play, a historical drama entitled Richard of Bordeaux . As far as we know, she started working on the play after seeing John Gielgud , an actor who is still classified as outstanding today, in Shakespeare's drama Hamlet . She sent the piece to Gielgud through her agent either in 1931 or at the beginning of 1932. Gielgud produced this piece at the end of 1932 and also took on the lead role in it.

One of the few characterizations of Josephine Tey also comes from John Gielgud.

“Despite her innate shyness and reluctance to stay in London for more than a few days at a time, Gordon was one of the most pleasant writers I worked with in the theater. She seems to have complete confidence in everyone involved in her pieces and does not interfere anywhere. Until shortly before the premiere, she seldom attended rehearsals and her patience and consideration are unsurpassed. "

The success with Richard of Bordeaux (over 430 performances at the New Theater in London's West End) was followed by two more plays, The Laughing Woman and Queen of Scots , both of which premiered in 1934. The Laughing Woman was one of the few of Tey's plays that had no historical reference. The literary historian Martha Hailey Dubose speculates that after the premiere of Queen of Scots there must have been an incident that was unpleasant for Tey - a reference in the memoirs of John Gielgud points to the allegation of plagiarism. In any case, Tey turned back to writing novels and published them under the pseudonym Josephine Tey, with whom she is still familiar to a wider reading public today. ("Josephine" after her mother's first name, "Tey" after the surname of a maternal great-grandmother from Suffolk.) The first novel to appear under this pseudonym was A Shilling for Candles in 1936. The protagonist Alan appears again in this novel Grant as the lead investigator. However, he is supported by Erica Burgoyne, a young woman whose father is also a police officer. Alfred Hitchcock took the novel as a basis and filmed it under the title Young and Innocent (first performance 1937).

Withdrawal during the Second World War

Tey was next to write a non-fiction book. Claverhouse , published in 1937, was intended to correct the view of John Graham, 1st Viscount of Dundee , who owes his fame in Scotland to victory in the Battle of Killiecrankie in the Scottish Rebellion against England in 1689 . This was followed by another play. This was followed by the play The Stars Bow Down , which was not premiered until 1939.

During the period of the Second World War, von Tey did not appear in any other plays or novels. It is not known what shaped her life during this period. John Gielgud, who met her again in 1942 and later spoke of a depressive phase, witnessed this time again. It is possible that she worked intensively on other works during this time, because shortly after the end of the Second World War, six one-act radio plays were published under the pseudonym Daviot. In the same year a detective novel appeared again - Death in College .

In 1950 Tey's father Colin Macintosh died. Although she would have been financially able to find another home, she remained in Scotland and was skeptical of the people. Shortly thereafter, or in 1951, Tey learned that she was suffering from an incurable disease. For all that is known, she kept her illness a secret from her family and her few close friends. She died on February 13, 1952 while on a trip to London at the age of 55. She bequeathed her entire estate (including the rights to her works) to the National Trust .

Classification of the work

Tey's few crime novels stand out because genre rules are deliberately broken or at least exhausted. About The Franchise Affair (dt .: The persecuted innocent ) is unusual because it is possible Tey to present a detective story that requires no murder. A girl accuses two innocent women of holding her prisoner. The story is based on two notorious 18th century cases: the case of Elisabeth Canning , who claimed to have been kidnapped, abused and prostituted by an elderly woman as a teenager, and on the murder trial of Elizabeth Brownrigg from London , who was entrusted to her Abused foster children so much that one of them died. Alan Grant as an investigator only appears as a marginal figure in this novel. The story, however, is told from the perspective of Robert Blair, a self-satisfied middle-aged bachelor who works as a lawyer in a small English town. The suspects, sharp-tongued Mrs. Sharpe and her daughter Marion, are outsiders who have moved here. Whom is more to be believed; the likable schoolgirl, whose righteousness and love of truth is confirmed by the sensational press and a bishop, or the reserved Sharpe women?

Death in College , Tey's first detective novel to be published after World War II, is set in a girls' school and has received praise for its humor and apt character drawing, among other things. Martha Hailey Dubose calls the detective novel Tey's angry tale at the same time. Their anger is directed against the pecking order in schools like this one, where individual ratings are derived from wealth, respect for middle class values, and assertiveness. In reality, supposed leadership qualities are nothing more than the ability to direct others. Friendship is either manipulative or naively self-sacrificing; loyalty is perverted. The wrong ones are successful, the others are marginalized, and the guilty go unpunished. Dubose therefore refers to the similarities with William Golding's Lord of the Flies and JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye .

In several of her thrillers, the main character and investigator is the Scotland Yard inspector Alan Grant, who in her masterpiece The Daughter of Time (Eng .: alibi for a king ) describes the murder of King Richard III's nephew more than 400 years ago . enlightened and so exonerated the king, who was disreputable as bloodthirsty. The book about the England-famous fall of the Princes in the Tower , which Grant rolls up from his sickbed, is a didactic piece of history and historical research and the power of rumor. Grant was originally only inspired by a portrait and then examines the facts together with his American assistant. According to Martha Hailey Dubose, the novel is primarily about the investigative process and clearly stands out from the broad mass of crime novels. Immediately after its publication, the novel was a great success, which led to widespread discussion among literary critics and historians. The Daughter of Time - whose title is derived from the French adage that the truth is a daughter of time - can hardly be described as a detective novel , but was nevertheless voted best detective novel of all time by the English authors 'association Crime Writers' Association and in 1969 awarded the Grand prix de littérature policière .

The singing sands was published posthumously from her posthumous papers. In this novel, Alan Grant is again the investigative detective, the plot is for the first time the Scotland in which Josephine Teys lived. Dubose implies that Tey must have already been aware of her terminal illness while writing it: The book is more melancholy than others and her inspector Grand is seriously considering retirement and marriage. Fundamental to the novel is the thesis that the dead can save the living and that only the living make the dead immortal.

She also wrote plays under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot, u. a. Richard of Bordeaux (about Richard II.), Which was quite successful (and helped John Gielgud to breakthrough in 1932), and Queen of Scots, as well as a play about Richard III published only in 1953. ( Dickon ). She also wrote a biography of the Jacobite John Graham of Claverhouse (Viscount Dundee, Walter Scotts Bonnie Dundee ) in 1937 and the novel The Privateer about the pirate Henry Morgan in 1952 . After Gielgud, her plays (and the theater environment) were most important to her, while she viewed her detective novels only as a livelihood.

Works

Elizabeth Macintosh used the pseudonyms Josephine Tey and Gordon Daviot for her literary work throughout. Today's publications only use the (better known) pseudonym Josephine Tey. Her first four novels were published in the UK by Methuen and Benn . After 1936 her publisher in Great Britain was Benn . In North America her first novels were published by Dutton , then by Appleton and from 1936 on by Macmillan Publishers .

Detective novels

• The man in the queue . Penguin Books, Harmonddsworth 1985, ISBN 0-14-004560-0 .
  • Waiting for death . DuMont-Literatur-Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-8321-8300-0 (former title Der Mann in der Schlange ; translated by Jochen Schimmang ; published under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot as an entry for a competition by the Methuen publishing house, first inspector grant -Novel)
• A shilling for candles . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1984, ISBN 0-14-004705-0 (EA London 1936).
  • Cliffs of death. A classic detective novel from 1936 . Heyne, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-453-10658-X (the first novel under his own name).
• Miss Pym Disposes . Arrow Books, London 2002, ISBN 0-09-942968-3 (EA London 1946).
  • Death in college . Heyne, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-453-10162-6 .
• The franchise affair . Folio Society, London 2001 (EA London 1948).
  • The pursued innocence . DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-2066-3 (former title The Great Suspicion )
• Brat Farrar . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1984, ISBN 0-14-004698-4 (EA London 1949).
  • The heir to Latchetts . Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1984.
• To Love and Be Wise . Macmillan, New York 1988, ISBN 0-02-078060-5 (EA London 1950).
  • Like a breath in the wind . DuMont, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-2356-5 .
• The daughter of time . Arrow Books, London 2009, ISBN 0-09-953682-X (EA London 1951).
  • Alibi for a king . Dtv, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-423-25169-7 (former title Richard the Verleumdete ).
• The Singing Sands . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 11985, ISBN 0-14-004257-1 (EA London 1952).
  • The singing sand . DuMont, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7701-1908-8 .

Other short stories and non-fiction books

• Kif. An unvarnished history . Sphere Books, London 1969.
• The privateer . Chivers Press, Bath 1987, ISBN 0-745-17085-4 (EA London 1952).
• Claverhouse . Collins, London 1937.

Plays

• Richard of Bordeaux. A play in two acts . Gollancz, London 1932.
• The laughing woman. A play . Gollancz, London 1934.
• The Queen of Scots. A play in three acts Gollancz, London 1934.
• The stars bow down. A play in three acts . Gollancz, London 1939.
• The Little Dry Thorn . 1947. Published only, no known performance
• Valerius . 1948. Published only, no known performance
• Plays . Bungay, Suffolk 1953 (3 vols., Under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot, foreword by John Gielgud).
• Leith sands, and other short plays . Duckworth, London 1946.
• Dickon. A play . Heinemann, London 1966.

Film adaptations of works by Josephine Tey

• Lawrence Huntington (Director): The franchise affair . 1951.
  • The franchise affair . 1962 (BBC, 6 episodes)
  • Leonard Lewis (Director): The franchise affair . 1988.
• Freddie Francis (Director): House of Horror . 1963 (based on the novel Brat Farrar ).
  • Leonard Lewis (Director): Brat Farrar . 1986
• Alfred Hitchcock (Director): Young and Innocent . 1937.
• Victor Menzies (Director): Richard of Bordeaux . 1955.

literature

• Raimund Borgmeier: Historical detective novels from the perspective of the present . In: Vera Nünning (ed.): The American and British crime novel. Genres, developments, model interpretations . WVT, Trier 2008, pp. 75-89.
• Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery - The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists . Thomas Dunne Books, New York 2011, ISBN 9780312276553 .
• Christina R. Martin: A mystery about this. Justified sin and very private memoirs in the detective novels of Josephine Tey , Dissertation, Universität Strathclyde 2002.
• Volker Neuhaus : Afterword . In: Josephine Tey: The pursued innocence . DuMont, Cologne 1990, pp. 294-299, ISBN 3-7701-2066-3 .
• Volker Neuhaus: Afterword . In: Josephine Tey: Waiting for death . DuMont, Cologne 2003, pp. 282–285, ISBN 3-8321-8300-0 .
• Geraldine Perriam (Ed.): Josephine Tey. A celebration . Black Rock Press, Glasgow 2004.
• Sandra Roy: Josephine Tey . Twayne Publ., Boston, Mass. 1980, ISBN 0-8057-6776-2 .
• Klaus-Dieter Walkhoff-Jordan: Bibliography of crime literature 1945-1984 . Ullstein, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-548-10325-1 .
• Klaus-Dieter Walkhoff-Jordan: Bibliography of crime literature 1985-1990 . Ullstein, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-548-34813-0 .
• Jennifer Morag Henderson: Josephine Tey: a life , Dingwall, Ross-shire, Scotland: Sandstone Press, [2015], ISBN 978-1-910985-37-3

Web links

• Richard III biography Society , English
• Literature by and about Josephine Tey in the catalog of the German National Library
• Josephine Tey in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 262.
2. ^ ^{A b} Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 263.
3. ^ ^{A b} Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 264.
4. ↑ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 264. The original quote is: In spite of her innate shyness, and her dislike of staying in London for more than a few days at a time, Gordon is the most delightful author I. have ever worked with in the theater. She seems to have complete trust in everyone who is concerned in her plays, and does not intervene at all. She seldom comes near rehearsals until just before the first night, and her patience and consideration are limitless.
5. ^ Antonia Fraser: Introduction to The Franchise Affair , Folio Society, London 2001, p. Ix.
6. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 267.
7. ↑ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 273.
8. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 270.
9. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 268.
10. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 274.
11. ^ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 275.
12. ↑ The title The Killer in the crowd was chosen for the US domestic market .
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Translated by Manfred Allié .