Marian Fowler

Marian Fowler (née Little; 15 October 1929-June 12, 2020) was a Canadian literary scholar and biographer who was best known for writing women's biographies.

Life and work

Fowler was born in Newmarket, Ontario, to Dorothy and Robert Little in 1929. Initially educated at the University of Toronto, Fowler worked as a copywriter before marrying Rodney Fowler, a cardiologist, in 1953 with whom she had two children.. In 1978 she and Rodney Fowler divorced.

Fowler returned to the University of Toronto where she earned an MA (1965) and a PhD (1970) which dealt with Jane Austen's novels. She worked as a professor of English literature at York University from 1971 to 1982.

Fowler died in Toronto, Ontario on June 12, 2020.

Awards

Fowler won the 1983 Canadian Biography Award from the Association for Canadian Studies for her second published biography, Redney: A Life of Sara Jeannette Duncan (1983).

In a Gilded Cage: From Heiress to Duchess, a group biography, was nominated for the 1993 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction. In a Gilded Cage explores the lives of five American heiresses who married British artistocrats, specifically Consuelo Vanderbilt, Lily Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester, Helena Keith-Falconer, Countess of Kintore, and May Goelet.

Works

• The Embroidered Tent: Five Gentlewomen in Early Canada (1982, Anansi)
• Redney: A Life of Sara Jeannette Duncan (1983, Anansi)
• Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj (1987, Viking)
• Blenheim: Biography of a Palace (1989, Viking)
• In a Gilded Cage: From Heiress to Duchess (1994, St. Martin's)
• The Way She Looks Tonight: Five Women of Style (1996, St. Martin's)
• Hope: Adventures of a Diamond (2002)