Editing Barbara Pym (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born on 2 June 1913 at 72 Willow Street<ref name=dickins>{{cite book|last=Dickins|first=Gordon|title=An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire|year=1987|publisher=Shropshire Libraries|pages=59, 104|isbn=0-903802-37-6}}</ref> in [[Oswestry]], Shropshire, the elder daughter of Irena Spenser, ''née'' Thomas (1886–1945) and Frederic Crampton Pym (1879–1966), a solicitor.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|date=2004-09-23|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31574|pages=ref:odnb/31574|editor-last=Matthew|editor-first=H. C. G.|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31574|access-date=2019-12-17|editor2-last=Harrison|editor2-first=B.}}</ref> She was educated at Queen's Park School, a girls' school in Oswestry. From the age of 12, she attended [[Huyton College]], near [[Liverpool]]. Pym's parents were active in the local Oswestry operatic society, and she was encouraged to write and be creative from a young age.<ref>{{cite book |last=Holt |first=Hazel |date=1990 |title=A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |page=13 |isbn=0525249370}}</ref> She spent most of her childhood at Morda Lodge in Morda Road, Oswestry, where in 1922 she staged her first play, ''The Magic Diamond'', performed by family and friends.<ref name=dickins/>

In 1931, she went to [[St Hilda's College, Oxford]], to study English. While at Oxford, she developed a close friendship with the future novelist and literary critic [[Robert Liddell]] who would read her early works and provide key feedback.<ref>Holt 1990, p. 57</ref> She took a second-class honours B.A. degree in English Language and Literature in 1934. In the 1930s, she travelled to Germany on several occasions, developing a love for the country as well as a romantic relationship with a young Nazi officer, Friedbert Gluck. Although she initially admired [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and did not foresee the advent of war, she later recognised her "blind spot", and removed a character based on Gluck from the novel she was in the process of writing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/08/the-adventures-of-miss-barbara-pym-by-paula-byrne-the-modern-jane-austen|title=The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne – the 'modern Jane Austen'?|date=8 April 2021|author=Kathryn Hughes|website=The Guardian|access-date=8 April 2021}}</ref>

In early 1939, Pym approached [[Jonathan Cape]] about a job in publishing; none was available at the time. The outbreak of [[World War II]] changed her plans, and in 1941 she went to work for the Censorship Department in Bristol, initially checking letters between Irish families in Britain and Ireland, later joining the [[Women's Royal Naval Service]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym|author=[[Paula Byrne]]|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2021|pages=316–373}}</ref><ref name=guardian-20250501/> From 1943, she served in naval [[Postal censorship#World War II|postal censorship]] in Southampton, eventually being posted to [[Naples]].<ref>Holt 1990, pp.97–98</ref><ref name=guardian-20250501/> She had learned about coded messages while an examiner, and may have worked for or with [[MI5]].<ref name=guardian-20250501>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/may/01/author-barbara-pym-may-worked-mi5-research-suggests |title=Author Barbara Pym may have worked for MI5, research suggests |last=Khomami |first=Nadia |newspaper=The Guardian |date=1 May 2025 |access-date=3 May 2025}}</ref>

===Personal life===
In June 1946, Pym started work at the [[International African Institute]] in London. She became the assistant editor of the scholarly journal ''[[Africa (journal)|Africa]]'', where she would work until her retirement in 1974.<ref>Holt 1990, p.183</ref> That inspired her use of [[anthropology|anthropologists]] as characters in some of her novels, notably ''Excellent Women'', ''Less than Angels'', and ''An Unsuitable Attachment''. Pym's sister Hilary separated from her husband in 1946, and the two sisters moved together into a flat in [[Pimlico]]. They would later move to a house in [[Queen's Park, London|Queen's Park]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Pym |first=Barbara |date=1984 |title=A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (ed. Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym) |location=New York |publisher=E. P. Dutton |page=184 |isbn=0525242341}}</ref>

Pym did not marry or have children, despite several close relationships with men. In her undergraduate days, they included Henry Harvey (a fellow Oxford student, who remained the love of her life)<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120216145605/http://jamesruncie.com/docs/film_misspym.html James Runcie: "Miss Pym's Day Out"]. Accessed 17 March 2013</ref> and [[Rupert Gleadow]].<ref>Holt 1990, pp. 34–35</ref> When she was 24 she had a romance with the future politician [[Julian Amery]], six years her junior.<ref>Faber, David, Speaking for England, London, 2005, {{ISBN|0-7432-5688-3}}</ref> In 1942 she had a brief relationship with the BBC radio producer [[Gordon Glover]], who was the estranged husband of her friend [[Honor Wyatt]]. Glover broke this off abruptly, which traumatised Pym,<ref>Byrne, Paula, ''The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym'', (2021: William Collins), p 335.</ref> and when Glover died in 1975 she burnt her diary for 1942.<ref>Byrne, Paula, ''The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym'', (2021: William Collins), p 563.</ref>

===Early literary career===
Pym wrote her first novel, ''[[Some Tame Gazelle]]'', in 1935, but it was rejected by numerous publishers including [[Jonathan Cape]] and [[Victor Gollancz Ltd|Gollancz]].<ref>Pym 1984, p. 56</ref> She wrote another novel, ''Civil to Strangers'', in 1936 and several novellas in the following years, which were collectively published as ''[[Civil to Strangers]]'' after Pym's death. In 1940, Pym wrote the novel ''[[Crampton Hodnet]]'', which would also be published after her death.<ref>Pym 1984, p. 97</ref>

After some years of submitting stories to women's magazines, Pym heavily revised ''Some Tame Gazelle'', which this time was accepted by Jonathan Cape for publication in 1950.<ref name="Fowler">[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/invisible-ink-no-68--barbara-pym-2240300.html Christopher Fowler, "Invisible Ink: No. 68"], ''The Independent'', 13 March 2011, accessed 30 September 2011</ref> The poet [[Philip Larkin]] regarded ''Some Tame Gazelle'' as Pym's ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weld |first=Annette |date=1992 |title= Barbara Pym and the Novel of Manners |location=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |page=58 |isbn=9781349216925}}</ref> The novel follows the lives of two middle-aged [[spinster]] sisters in an English village before the War, who are both given the possibility of love. That year, Pym also had a [[radio play]] – ''Something to Remember'' – accepted by the [[BBC]].<ref>Holt 1990, p. 145</ref>

Pym's second novel, ''[[Excellent Women]]'' (1952), was well received, but her third, ''[[Jane and Prudence]]'' (1953), received more mixed reviews.<ref>Holt 1990, p.164</ref> Her fourth novel, ''[[Less than Angels]]'' (1955), had poorer sales than the previous three,<ref>letter from Wren Howard to Barbara Pym, December 1955, published in ''A Few Green Leaves: The Journal of the Barbara Pym Society'', Vol 9, No. 2, November 2003</ref> but it attracted enough attention to be Pym's debut novel in [[the United States]]. A representative from [[Twentieth Century Fox]] came to England with an interest in securing the film rights, but this ultimately fell through.<ref>Holt 1990, p.171</ref>

Pym's fifth novel, ''[[A Glass of Blessings]]'' (1958), was poorly reviewed,  Pym noting that – of her first six novels – it was the worst reviewed.<ref>Pym 1984, p.203</ref> However, the inclusion of sympathetic [[homosexual]] characters, in an era when homosexuality was largely frowned upon, and homosexual acts between men were illegal, attracted some interest in contemporary reviews, including ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.<ref>Holt 1990, p.180</ref> Pym's sixth novel was ''[[No Fond Return of Love]]'' (1961), in which two female academic research assistants fall in love with the same man. The book continued the trend of Pym's novels receiving minimal critical attention. Nonetheless, it was positively reviewed in ''[[Tatler]]'', the reviewer commenting:

{{Blockquote
|text= I love and admire Miss Pym's pussycat wit and profoundly unsoppy kindliness, and we may leave the deeply peculiar, face-saving, gently tormented English middle classes safely in her hands.
}}After Pym made a less than flattering allusion to a [[Marks & Spencer|Marks and Spencer's]] dress in her work, the company's legal department was sufficiently concerned by her influence to write to her.<ref name=":0" />

==="Wilderness years"===
In 1963, Pym submitted her seventh novel – ''[[An Unsuitable Attachment]]'' – to Cape. Editor [[Tom Maschler]], who had recently joined the firm, rejected the manuscript, on the advice of two readers.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Miss Pym's Day Out |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8Zezov9RQ |access-date=26 April 2020 |series=Bookmark |station=[[BBC]] |date=19 February 1992 |season=9 |number=8 |minutes=36 |language=en}}</ref> Pym wrote back to protest that she was being unfairly treated, but was told (sympathetically but firmly) that the novel did not show promise.<ref>Holt 1990, pp.192–197</ref> Pym revised the manuscript and sent it to several other publishers, but with no success. Pym was advised that her style of writing was old-fashioned, and that the public were no longer interested in books about small-town spinsters and vicars. She was forced to consider finding a new authorial voice, but ultimately felt that she was too old to adapt to what publishers considered popular taste.<ref>https://barbara-pym.org/about-barbara-pym-and-her-writings/finding-a-voice/ Pym, Barbara, ''Finding a Voice'', radio talk given 4 April 1978 on [[BBC Radio 3]], archived at The Barbara Pym Society website, accessed 26 April 2020]</ref> Pym was told that the minimum 'economic figure' for book sales was 4,000 copies, whereas several of her books from the 1950s had not achieved that number.<ref>Holt 1990, p.204</ref>
 
As a result, Pym did not publish anything from 1962 until 1977. Regardless, she continued writing novels and short stories, and refining existing works, while she continued her professional career at the International African Institute. Pym never fully forgave Cape, or Tom Maschler. She and her sister invented a dessert called "Maschler pudding", which was a combination of [[lime (fruit)|lime]] [[Gelatin dessert|jelly]] and milk.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Miss Pym's Day Out |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi8Zezov9RQ |access-date=26 April 2020 |series=Bookmark |station=[[BBC]] |date=19 February 1992 |season=9 |number=8 |minutes=35 |language=en}}</ref> In 1965, she wrote in a letter, "I really still wonder if my books will ''ever'' be acceptable again".<ref>Pym 1984, p.234</ref> Pym wrote ''[[The Sweet Dove Died]]'' in 1968 and ''[[An Academic Question]]'' in 1970. She submitted ''Dove'' to several publishers but it was again rejected. However, her earlier novels were reprinted during this period because of popular demand in public libraries.<ref>Pym 1984, p.254</ref> Pym wrote 27 short stories, of which only six were published during her lifetime. The remainder are stored in the Pym archives at the [[Bodleian Library]].<ref>''A Few Green Leaves: The Journal of the Barbara Pym Society'', Vol 11, No. 1, May 2005</ref>

In 1961, Pym began a correspondence with Philip Larkin, as he was preparing to write a review article of her novels.<ref>Pym 1984, p.214</ref> They continued a constant series of letters for 19 years, right up to her death. They met for the first time in April 1975, at the [[Randolph Hotel, Oxford]].

In 1971, Pym was diagnosed with [[breast cancer]] and underwent a [[mastectomy]] of her left breast. The operation was successful and she was deemed clear of cancer.<ref>Pym 1984, p.261</ref> In 1972, Pym and her sister Hilary purchased Barn Cottage at [[Finstock]] in Oxfordshire. The sisters played an active role in the social life of the village. Pym retired  in 1974.<ref>Pym 1984, p.276</ref> That year, she had a small [[stroke]], which left her with temporary [[dyslexia]].<ref>Holt 1990, p.240</ref> She continued to write, completing ''[[Quartet in Autumn]]'' in 1976, which was similarly rejected by [[Hamish Hamilton|Hamish Hamilton Limited]]. Although Pym was no longer being published, she found a job on the awards committee of the [[Romantic Novelists' Association]].

===Rediscovery and final years===
On 21 January 1977, the ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'' ran an article in which high-profile writers and academics listed their most underrated and overrated books or authors of the previous 75 years (the lifetime of the publication). Pym was chosen as the most underrated writer by both Larkin and [[Lord David Cecil]], and was the only one to be selected by two contributors. On the strength of that article, literary interest in Pym was revived after 16 years.<ref name="Fowler"/><ref>Pym, ''Finding a Voice''</ref> Pym and Larkin had kept up a private correspondence for 17 years, but even his influence had previously been of no use in getting her a new publishing contract. Several publishing companies expressed an interest, including her former publisher Cape. Pym rejected them in favour of Macmillan, who agreed to publish ''Quartet in Autumn'' the same year.<ref>Pym 1984, p.294</ref> Before ''Quartet'' had been published, Macmillan also agreed to publish ''The Sweet Dove Died'', which she had reworked since completing it 10 years earlier. Cape reprinted her earlier novels, to which they still had the rights. The [[BBC]] interviewed Pym for a programme, ''Tea with Miss Pym'', which aired on 21 October 1977. Reviews of ''Quartet'' were almost uniformly positive, and the novel was nominated for the 1977 [[Booker Prize]]. Pym attended the ceremony, but the award went to [[Paul Scott (novelist)|Paul Scott]] for ''[[Staying On]]''.

The rediscovery also meant Pym was noticed in the United States for the first time. [[E. P. Dutton]] secured the rights to all of her existing novels, starting with ''Excellent Women'' and ''Quartet in Autumn'', and published her entire ''oeuvre'' between 1978 and 1987.<ref>Holt 1990, p.299</ref> The discovery of Pym's novels, combined with the narrative of her "comeback", made her a minor success in the USA during that period.<ref name="Fowler"/> Following her return to the public eye, she was elected as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref name="Salwak1987">{{cite book|author=Dale Salwak|title=The Life and Work of Barbara Pym|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EiiwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|date=18 June 1987|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-08538-5|pages=39–}}</ref> Pym was interviewed for an episode of ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' on 1 August 1978, which was replayed on [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]] on 2 June 2013 – the centenary of her birth.<ref name=DowlenonPym>{{cite web|author1=Jerry Dowlen|title=The very best Christmas features... Jerry Dowlen celebrates the life and centenary of Barbara Pym...|url=http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/jd.html|website=booksmonthly.co.uk|publisher=Paul Norman|access-date=5 April 2015|format=monthly literary column|date=December 2013|quote=Barbara Pym's appearance on 'Desert Island Discs' on 1 August 1978 was replayed on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 2 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224150904/http://www.booksmonthly.co.uk/jd.html|archive-date=24 December 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Pym's later novels have a more sombre, reflective tone than her earlier ones, which were in the [[high comedy]] tradition. By mid-1977, she had conceived an idea for her next novel, ''[[A Few Green Leaves]]'', which would turn out to be her last. In January 1979, a lump in Pym's abdomen was diagnosed as malignant, a return of the breast cancer she had had in 1971. She underwent [[chemotherapy]] while completing the draft of ''A Few Green Leaves''.<ref>Pym 1984, pages 322–323</ref> Aware she did not have long to live, she attempted to complete the novel before her death. She had already considered the plot of another novel, which would follow two women from different social backgrounds, starting with their youth and moving through to maturity, including sequences set in World War II,<ref name="Holt 1990, p.275">Holt 1990, p.275</ref> but she would never get to start work on it. By October 1979, Pym was confined to bed.<ref>Holt 1990, p.277</ref> Although not entirely satisfied with the final draft of ''A Few Green Leaves'', she submitted it to Macmillan, and it was published in 1980, shortly after her death.

On 11 January 1980, Barbara Pym died of breast cancer, aged 66. Following her death, her sister Hilary continued to champion her work, and was involved in setting up the Barbara Pym Society in 1993. Posthumously, ''Crampton Hodnet'', ''An Academic Question'' and ''An Unsuitable Attachment'' were published, in conjunction with Pym's literary executor, the novelist [[Hazel Holt]]. Holt and Hilary Pym also published a collection, ''[[Civil to Strangers|Civil to Strangers and Other Writings]]'', which was a collection of short stories and novellas mostly from Pym's early years. Holt and Hilary Pym published three additional volumes: ''[[A Very Private Eye]]'', an "autobiography" based on Pym's edited diaries and letters, ''[[A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym]]'', a biography written by Holt, and ''[[À La Pym|A la Pym]]'', a cookbook comprising recipes for dishes featured in Pym's novels.

Hilary lived at Barn Cottage until her death in February 2004. The Pym sisters are buried in Finstock churchyard. In 2006, a [[blue plaque]] was placed on the cottage, marking it as a historic site.