Catherine Gavin

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Catherine Gavin
DLitt
The face of a middle-aged white woman with short dark hair.
Catherine Gavin, from a 1969 newspaper.
Born(1907-05-13)May 13, 1907
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died27 December 1999 (age 92)
NationalityScottish
Occupation(s)historian, academic, war correspondent, novelist
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Aberdeen
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Aberdeen
University of Glasgow
Kemsley Newspapers

Catherine Irvine Gavin (13 May 1907 – 27 December 1999) was a Scottish academic historian, war correspondent, and historical novelist.[1]

Early life[edit]

Gavin was born in Aberdeen in 1907,[2] and studied history and English at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with first-class honours.[1] She completed doctoral work in 1931, with a doctoral thesis on Louis Philippe of France; her thesis was published in 1933.[3]

Career[edit]

Gavin held positions as a history lecturer at Aberdeen and at the University of Glasgow.[1] She stood unsuccessfully as a Unionist candidate in two parliamentary elections in the 1930s.[1]

During World War II, she worked in France and the Netherlands for Kemsley Newspapers.[1] She also wrote a biography of Edward VII, published in 1941. She was a correspondent in the Middle East and Ethiopia after the war, for the Daily Express. After marriage, she worked a few years on the staff of Time magazine in New York.[2] She wrote about her wartime experiences in Liberated France (1955).[4]

Most of Gavin's literary output was in the genre of historical romance.[5] "Her characters are attractive flesh-and-blood people, her narrative adventurous and suspenseful, and her use of history skillful and unerring," reported one American reviewer in 1957.[6] The University of Aberdeen awarded her an honorary DLitt in 1986.[1] The Catherine Gavin Room there is named in her honour.[1] The university has a 1940 portrait of her, in oil, by Elizabeth Mary Watt.[7]

Gavin appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 24 June 1978.[8]

Selected works[edit]

Gavin's works of historical fiction include the following titles:

  • Clyde Valley (1938)[9]
  • The Hostile Shore (1940)
  • The Black Milestone (1941)[10]
  • The Mountain of Light (1944)
  • Madeleine (1957)[11]
  • The Cactus and the Crown (1962)[12][13]
  • The Fortress (1964)
  • The Moon Into Blood (1966)
  • The Devil in Harbour (1968)[5]
  • The House of War (1970)[14]
  • Give Me the Daggers (1972)[15][16]
  • The Snow Mountain (1973)[17]
  • Traitors' Gate (1976)
  • None Dare Call It Treason (1978)[18]
  • How Sleep the Brave (1980)
  • The Sunset Dream (1984)[19]
  • A Light Woman (1986)
  • A Dawn of Splendour (1989)[20]
  • The French Fortune (1991)[21]
  • One Candle Burning (1996)[22]

Personal life[edit]

In 1948, Gavin married American advertising executive John Ashcraft[2] and moved to the United States with him.[1] She was widowed in 1998, and died in 1999, aged 92.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Alexander, Flora (1 April 2000). "Catherine Gavin". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Twentieth-Century Romance and Gothic Writers. Macmillan International Higher Education. 11 November 1982. p. 289. ISBN 978-1-349-06127-3.
  3. ^ Gavin, Catherine Irvine (1933). Louis Philippe, King of the French. Methuen & Company Limited.
  4. ^ Gavin, Catherine Irvine (1955). Liberated France. Cape.
  5. ^ a b Gifford, Thomas (23 March 1969). "When Novels Aren't Novel, They're Genre". Star Tribune. p. 99. Retrieved 17 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Barkham, John (30 November 1957). "Hazards Ride High". Tucson Citizen. p. 12. Retrieved 17 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "BBC - Your Paintings - Catherine Gavin". Art UK. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  8. ^ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Dr Catherine Gavin". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  9. ^ Finkelstein, David (23 November 2007). Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland, Volume 4: Professionalism and Diversity 1880-2000. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 239–240. ISBN 978-0-7486-2884-1.
  10. ^ Smith, Janet Adam (19 July 1942). "The Literary Scene in Scotland". The New York Times. p. BR7 – via ProQuest.
  11. ^ Gavin, Catherine Irvine (1957). Madeleine. St. Martin's Press.
  12. ^ Gavin, Catherine (1962). The Cactus and the Crown.
  13. ^ Alexander, Charles (3 March 1962). "An Old Dream Dies, A New is Born". Albany Democrat-Herald. p. 6. Retrieved 17 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Gavin, Catherine (1970). The House of War. Morrow. ISBN 9780671819262.
  15. ^ Gavin, Catherine (2005). Give Me the Daggers. Royal National Institute of the Blind.
  16. ^ Harvey, Catherine (22 October 1972). "Catherine Gavin Novel Entertaining". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 102. Retrieved 17 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Gavin, Catherine Irvine (1974). The Snow Mountain. Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-49179-0.
  18. ^ Gavin, Catherine Irvine (1978). None Dare Call it Treason. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-57706-3.
  19. ^ Gavin, Catherine (1985). The Sunset Dream. Coronet. ISBN 978-0-340-36656-1.
  20. ^ Gavin, Catherine Irvine (1990). A Dawn of Splendour. Grafton. ISBN 978-0-586-20345-3.
  21. ^ Gavin, Catherine (1991). The French Fortune. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-246-13588-9.
  22. ^ Gavin, Catherine (1997). One Candle Burning. HarperCollinsPubl. ISBN 978-0-586-20909-7.

External links[edit]

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