Kennedy, Margaret (1896-1967), was a British novelist, critic, and playwright, known for the sophistication and wit of her fiction. Kennedy first won fame in 1924 with her novel The Constant Nymph, a charming and poignant love-story of a teen-aged girl and her gifted and unconventional family of musicians. Kennedy and the English dramatist Basil Dean adapted the novel into a play in 1926. The book was also filmed several times. Kennedy wrote a sequel, The Fool of the Family (1930).
Kennedy’s first novel was The Ladies of Lyndon (1923). Her novel Troy Chimneys (1953) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, one of the oldest and most prestigious book awards in the United Kingdom. Her other novels include Red Sky at Morning (1927), A Long Time Ago (1932), The Midas Touch (1938), The Feast (1950), The Oracles (1955), The Forgotten Smile (1961), and Not in the Calendar (1964). Her critical biography Life of Jane Austen was published in 1950. Kennedy also wrote The Outlaws on Parnassus (1958), a study of the art of fiction. Her plays are Come with Me (1928), written with Basil Dean; Escape Me Never (1933); and Autumn (1937), written with the Russian-born director Gregory Ratoff. Kennedy was born on April 23, 1896, in London. She died on July 31, 1967.
