Editing Dodie Smith

{{Short description|English novelist and playwright (1896–1990)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Dodie Smith
| image            = Dodie Smith.jpg
| imagesize        = 
| caption          = Smith in the 1930s
| pseudonym        = C. L. Anthony <br/>Charles Henry Percy
| birth_name       = Dorothy Gladys Smith
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1896|5|3|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Whitefield, Greater Manchester|Whitefield]], [[Lancashire]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1990|11|24|1896|5|3}}
| death_place      = [[Uttlesford]], [[Essex]], England
| occupation       = {{hlist| Novelist| playwright}}
| nationality      = British
| education        = [[St Paul's Girls' School]]
| period           = 
| genre            = [[Children's literature]]
| notableworks     = {{hlist| ''[[The Hundred and One Dalmatians]]''| ''[[I Capture the Castle]]''| ''[[The Starlight Barking]]''}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|Alec Macbeth Beesley|1939|1987|reason=died}}
| subject          = 
| movement         = 
| signature        = 
| website          = 
}}

'''Dorothy Gladys''' "'''Dodie'''" '''Smith''' (3 May 1896 – 24 November 1990) was an English [[novelist]] and [[playwright]]. She is best known for writing ''[[I Capture the Castle]]'' (1948) and the children's novel ''[[The Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'' (1956). Other works include  ''[[Dear Octopus]]'' (1938) and ''[[The Starlight Barking]]'' (1967). ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians'' was adapted into a 1961 [[One Hundred and One Dalmatians|animated film]] and a 1996 [[101 Dalmatians (1996 film)|live-action film]], both produced by [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]]. Her novel ''I Capture the Castle'' was voted number 82 as "one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels" by the British public as part of the [[BBC]]'s [[The Big Read]] (2003), and was adapted into a [[I Capture the Castle (film)|film]] released the same year.<ref name="Hile 2004"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/dodie-smith-dear-octopus-the-national-theatre-london-101-dalmatians-8lfnq6jzd|title=What Dodie Smith did first: the story behind Dear Octopus|work=[[The Times]]|date=12 February 2024 }}</ref>

==Biography==

===Early life===

Smith was born on 3 May 1896 in a house named Stoneycroft (number 118) on Bury New Road, [[Whitefield, Greater Manchester|Whitefield]], near [[Bury, Greater Manchester|Bury]] in [[Lancashire]], England. She was an only child. Her parents were Ernest and Ella Smith (née Furber). Ernest was a bank manager; he died in 1898 when Dodie was two years old. Dodie and her mother moved to [[Old Trafford (district)|Old Trafford]] to live with her grandparents, William and Margaret Furber.<ref name="Hadsel 1982">{{harvnb|Hadsel|1982}}</ref> Dodie's childhood home, Kingston House,<ref name="Grove 2004">{{harvnb|Grove|2004}}</ref> was at 609&nbsp;Stretford Road,<ref name="M.E.N.">{{citation |url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/19/19193_honour_for_dalmatians_dodie.html |title=Honour for 'Dalmatians' Dodie |first=John |last=Scheerhout |date=12 September 2002 |website=[[Manchester Evening News]] |access-date=14 January 2010}}</ref> and faced the [[Manchester Ship Canal]].<ref name="Hile 2004">{{harvnb|Hile|2004}}</ref> She lived with her mother, maternal grandparents, two aunts and three uncles.<ref name="Grove 2004"/>

In Smith's autobiography ''Look Back with Love'' (1974), she credits her grandfather William as one of three reasons she became a playwright. He was an avid theatregoer, and they had long talks about [[Shakespeare]] and [[melodrama]]. The second reason was that her uncle Harold Furber, an amateur actor, read plays with her and introduced her to contemporary drama. Thirdly, her mother had wanted to be an actress, an ambition frustrated except for walk-on parts, once in the company of [[Sarah Bernhardt]]. Smith wrote her first play at the age of ten, and she began acting in minor roles during her teens at the Manchester Athenaeum Dramatic Society.<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/> There is a [[blue plaque]] commemorating the building where Dorothy grew up.<ref name="M.E.N."/> The formative years of Dorothy's childhood were spent at this house.

===Move to London===
[[File:Dorset Square, London 03.JPG|thumb|18 Dorset Square, London]]
[[File:Dorset Square, London 04.JPG|thumb|Blue plaque, 18 Dorset Square]]

In 1910 Ella remarried and moved to London with her new husband and the 14-year-old Dodie, who attended school both in [[Manchester]] and at [[St Paul's Girls' School]], London. In 1914 Dodie entered the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]] (RADA). Her first role came in [[Arthur Wing Pinero]]'s play ''Playgoers''. Other roles after RADA included a Chinese girl in ''Mr. Wu'', a parlour maid in ''Ye Gods'', and a young mother in ''Niobe'', which was directed by [[Basil Dean]], who would later buy her play [[Autumn Crocus (play)|''Autumn Crocus'']].

She was also in the [[Portsmouth]] Repertory Theatre, travelled with a [[YMCA]] company to entertain troops in France during World War&nbsp;I, toured with the French comedy ''French Leave'', and appeared as Anne in [[John Galsworthy|Galsworthy]]'s play ''The Pigeon'' at the [[Everyman Cinema, Hampstead|Everyman Theatre]] and at a festival in [[Zürich]], Switzerland.<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/> While Ella was dying of [[breast cancer]], she and Dodie became devotees of [[Christian Science]].<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1974}}</ref>

===Career after acting===

Even though Smith had sold a movie script, ''Schoolgirl Rebels'', using the pseudonym Charles Henry Percy,<ref name="Hile 2004"/> and written a one-act play, ''British Talent'', that premiered at the Three Arts Club in 1924, she still had a hard time finding steady work.<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/> In 1923, she accepted a job in [[Heals (department store)|Heal and Son]]'s furniture store in London and became the toy buyer (and mistress of the chairman, [[Ambrose Heal]]).<ref name="oxforddnb.com">Alan Crawford, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33786 "Heal, Sir Ambrose (1872–1959)"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151027171035/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33786 |date=27 October 2015 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, retrieved 12 August 2007</ref> She wrote her first staged play, ''Autumn Crocus'', in 1931 using the pseudonym C.L. Anthony. Its success, and the discovery of her identity by journalists, inspired the newspaper headline, "Shopgirl Writes Play".<ref name="Smith 1979">{{harvnb|Smith|1979}}</ref> The show starred [[Fay Compton]] and [[Francis Lederer]].<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/>

Smith's fourth play ''[[Call It a Day (play)|Call It a Day]]'' was acted by the [[Theatre Guild]] on 28 January 1936 and ran for 194 performances. It ran in London for 509 performances, the longest run of any of Smith's plays to date. American critic [[Joseph Wood Krutch]] compared it favorably to [[George S. Kaufman]] and [[Edna Ferber]]'s play ''[[Dinner at Eight (play)|Dinner at Eight]]'' and [[Edward Knoblock]]'s ''Grand Hotel''. He said the London production "stays pretty consistently on the level of comedy and imposes upon its brittle structure no greater emotional weight than that structure is capable of bearing."<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/>

The success of ''Call It a Day'' enabled Smith to purchase The Barretts, a cottage near the village of [[Finchingfield]], [[Essex]]. Her next play, ''[[Bonnet Over the Windmill]]'' (1937), was not as successful. It concerns three aspiring young actresses and their landlady, a middle-aged former music-hall performer, and the young women's attempts to attract the attention of a playwright and a theatre producer with hopes of obtaining dramatic roles.<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/>

Her next play, ''[[Dear Octopus (play)|Dear Octopus]]'' (1938), featured Dame [[Marie Tempest]] and [[John Gielgud|Sir John Gielgud]]. The unusual title refers to a toast in the play: "To the family—that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to." [[Brooks Atkinson]] termed Smith a "domestic panoramatist" and compared her to many English novelists, from [[Samuel Richardson]] to [[Archibald Marshall]]; he also described her as the "appointed recorder" of the English family. The production in London ran for 376 performances, compared to that in [[New York City|New York]] of only 53.

When Smith travelled to America to cast ''Dear Octopus'', she brought with her Alec Macbeth Beesley (son of ''[[RMS Titanic|Titanic]]'' survivor [[Lawrence Beesley]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grove |first1=Valerie |title=Dear Dodie : The Life of Dodie Smith |date=1996 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=978-0-7011-5753-1 |page=67 |url=https://archive.org/details/deardodielifeofd0000grov/page/66/mode/2up}}</ref>), who had also worked at Heal's and had become her longtime friend and business manager. The two married in 1939. She would not have another play staged in London until 1952, though ''Lovers and Friends'' did play at the [[Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre|Plymouth Theatre]] in 1943. The show featured [[Katharine Cornell]] and [[Raymond Massey]].<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/>

Smith lived for many years in Dorset Square, [[Marylebone]], London, which a [[blue plaque]] now commemorates; her date of birth is shown inaccurately as 1895 instead of 1896.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.blueplaqueplaces.co.uk/dodie-smith-blue-plaque-in-london-2242 |title=Blue Plaque |access-date=9 February 2017 |archive-date=11 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211080914/http://www.blueplaqueplaces.co.uk/dodie-smith-blue-plaque-in-london-2242 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Later life===

During the 1940s Smith and Beesley relocated to the United States to avoid difficulties due to his being a [[conscientious objector]].<ref name="Smith 1979"/> She felt homesick for Britain, which inspired her first novel, written in [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania]], named ''[[I Capture the Castle]]'' (1948). She and Beesley also spent time in [[Beverly Hills]], [[Malibu, California|Malibu]], and [[Wilton, Connecticut]].<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/>

During their American interlude, the couple became friends with writers [[Christopher Isherwood]], [[Charles Brackett]] and [[John Van Druten]]. In her memoirs Smith credits Beesley with suggesting to Van Druten that he adapt Isherwood's [[Sally Bowles]] story ''[[Goodbye to Berlin]]'' into a play (the Van Druten play, ''[[I Am a Camera]]'', later became the musical ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]''). In her memoirs, Smith acknowledges having received writing advice from her friend, the novelist [[A. J. Cronin]].

Smith's first play back in London, ''Letter from Paris'', was an adaptation of [[Henry James]]'s short novel ''[[The Reverberator]]''. She used the adapting style of [[William Archibald (playwright)|William Archibald]]'s play ''[[The Innocents (play)|The Innocents]]'' (adapted from ''[[The Turn of the Screw]]'') and Ruth and Augustus Goetz's play ''[[The Heiress (1947 play)|The Heiress]]'' (adapted from ''[[Washington Square (novel)|Washington Square]]'').<ref name="Hadsel 1982"/>

In the 1970s she lived in [[Stambourne]], Essex.

===Death===

Smith died in 1990 (three years after Beesley) in [[Uttlesford]], north [[Essex]], England. She was cremated and her ashes scattered to the wind. She had named [[Julian Barnes]] as her literary executor, a job she thought would not involve much work. Barnes writes of the complicated task in his essay "Literary Executions", revealing among other things how he secured the return of the film rights to ''I Capture the Castle'', which had been owned by Disney since 1949.<ref>{{harvnb|Barnes|2003}}</ref> Smith's personal papers are housed in [[Boston University]]'s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, and include manuscripts, photographs, artwork and correspondence (including letters from [[Christopher Isherwood]] and [[John Gielgud]]).

==''The Hundred and One Dalmatians''==

Smith and Beesley loved dogs and kept [[Dalmatian (dog)|Dalmatians]] as pets; at one point the couple had nine of them. The first was named ''Pongo'', which became the name Smith used for the canine protagonist of her ''[[The Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'' novel. Smith had the idea for the novel when one of her friends observed a group of her Dalmatians and said "Those dogs would make a lovely fur coat".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Dodie |title=The Hundred and One Dalmatians & The Starlight Barking – Modern Classics |date=2018 |publisher=Egmont UK Ltd |location=About The Author |isbn=978-1405288750}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=10 Things You Didn't Know About 101 Dalmatians |url=https://ohmy.disney.com/movies/2016/01/25/10-things-didnt-know-about-101-dalmations/ |website=Oh My Disney |access-date=7 December 2019 |location="2. The story is based on Dodie Smith's own experience" |date=c. 2015}}</ref>

The novel has been adapted by [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney]] twice, an animated film in 1961 called ''[[One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'' and a live-action film in 1996 called ''[[101 Dalmatians (1996 film)|101 Dalmatians]]''. Although both of the Disney films spawned a sequel film, ''[[101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure]]'' and ''[[102 Dalmatians]]'', neither sequel has any connection to Smith's own sequel, ''[[The Starlight Barking]]''.

==Works==

{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-break}}

===Autobiography===
* ''Look Back with Love: A Manchester Childhood'' (1974)
* ''Look Back with Mixed Feelings'' (1978)
* ''Look Back with Astonishment'' (1979)  
* ''Look Back with Gratitude'' (1985)

===Novels===
* ''[[I Capture the Castle]]'' (1948)
* ''[[The Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'' (1956)
* ''The New Moon with the Old'' (1963)
* ''The Town in Bloom'' (1965)
* ''It Ends with Revelations'' (1967)
* ''[[The Starlight Barking]]'' (1967)
* ''A Tale of Two Families'' (1970)
* ''The Girl from the Candle-lit Bath'' (1978)
* ''The Midnight Kittens'' (1978)

{{Col-break}}

===Plays===
* ''[[Autumn Crocus (play)|Autumn Crocus]]'' (1931)
* ''[[Service (play)|Service]]'' (1932)
* ''[[Touch Wood]]'' (1934)
* ''[[Call It a Day (play)|Call It a Day]]''  (1935)
* ''[[Bonnet Over the Windmill]]'' (1937)
* ''[[Dear Octopus]]'' (1938)
* ''Lovers and Friends'' (1943)
* ''[[Letter from Paris]]'' (1952)
* ''[[I Capture the Castle]]'' (1954)
* ''These People, Those Books'' (1958)
* ''Amateur Means Lover'' (1961)

===Screenplays===
* ''[[The Uninvited (1944 film)|The Uninvited]]'' (1944), written by Smith and [[Frank Partos]]
* ''[[Darling, How Could You!]]'' (1951), written by Smith and [[Lesser Samuels]]

{{col-end}}

==Film adaptations==

* ''[[Looking Forward (1933 film)|Looking Forward]]'' (1933) based on ''Service''
* ''[[Autumn Crocus (film)|Autumn Crocus]]'' (1934)
* ''[[Call It a Day]]'' (1937)
* ''[[Dear Octopus (film)|Dear Octopus]]'' (1943)
* ''[[The First Day of Spring]]'' (1956), based on ''Call It a Day''
* ''[[One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'' (1961)
* ''[[101 Dalmatians (1996 film)|101 Dalmatians]]'' (1996)
* ''[[I Capture the Castle (film)|I Capture the Castle]]'' (2003)

'''Film sequels''' unconnected with Smith's own ''[[The Starlight Barking]]''.

* ''[[102 Dalmatians]]'' (2000)
* ''[[101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure]]'' (2003)
* ''[[Cruella (film)|Cruella]]'' (2021)

==References==
{{reflist|25em}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin}}
*{{citation |last=Barnes |first=Julian |year=2003 |chapter=Literary Executions |editor-last=Arana |editor-first=Marie |title=The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work : A Collection from the Washington Post Book World |publisher=PublicAffairs |location=New York}}
*{{citation |last=Grove |first=Valerie |contribution=Smith (married name Beesley), Dorothy Gladys (Dodie) (1896–1990)|year=2004 |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |access-date=14 January 2010 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40481}}
*{{citation |last=Hadsel |first=Martha |title=Modern British Dramatists, 1900–1945 |year=1982 |publisher=Gale |location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-8103-0937-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/modernbritishdra10iogr }}
* {{citation |last=Hile |first=Kevin S. |title=Contemporary Authors Online|year=2004|publisher=Gale|location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-7876-3995-2}}
*{{citation |last=Smith |first=Dodie |title=Look Back With Love: A Manchester Childhood |year=1974 |publisher=Heinemann |location=London |isbn= 0-434-71355-4}}
*{{citation |last=Smith |first=Dodie |title=Look Back With Astonishment |year=1979 |publisher=W.H. Allen |location=London |isbn= 0-491-02198-4}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Grove |first=Valerie |title=Dear Dodie: the life of Dodie Smith |year=1996 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn= 0-7011-5753-4 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Hadsel |first=Martha |title=Modern British Dramatists, 1900–1945 |year=1982 |publisher=Gale |location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-8103-0937-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/modernbritishdra10iogr |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Hile |first=Kevin S. |title=Contemporary Authors Online|year=2004|publisher=Gale|location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-7876-3995-2 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Dodie |title=Look Back With Gratitude |year=1985 |publisher=Muller, Blond & White|location=London |isbn= 0-584-11124-X |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Dodie |title=Look Back With Mixed Feelings |year=1978 |publisher=W.H. Allen |location=London |isbn= 0-491-02073-2 |ref=none}}

==External links==
* {{Library resources about|onlinebooks=no|viaf=101974269}}
* {{Library resources by|onlinebooks=no|viaf=101974269}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060430205105/http://home.comcast.net/~sulkowj/dodiesmith The Dodie Smith Information Site] (archived 2006-04-30)
* {{ISFDB name|174261}}
* {{LCAuth|n50013954|Dodie Smith|69|ue}}

{{101 Dalmatians}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Dodie}}
[[Category:Dodie Smith| ]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century British autobiographers]]
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1990 deaths]]
[[Category:English children's writers]]
[[Category:People educated at St Paul's Girls' School]]
[[Category:English Christian Scientists]]
[[Category:People from Whitefield, Greater Manchester]]
[[Category:English expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:People from Finchingfield]]
[[Category:People from Marylebone]]
[[Category:Writers from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:Writers from Essex]]
[[Category:Writers from Lancashire]]