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William David Owen

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Ty Frannan, birthplace of author W. D. Owen

William David Owen (21 October 1874 – 4 November 1925), born William Owen was a Welsh author best known for his novel Madam Wen (White Lady).[1]

Publications

Madam Wen which was published in book form in 1925, although it had first appeared as a serial in the Welsh-language newspaper y Genedl Gymraeg (The Welsh Nation) in 1914.[2] The first English edition of the story was published in an abridged form in October 2009, in a biographical work about the author by T. T. M. Hale, entitled The Rhosneigr Romanticist.[3][2][4]

Owen died in 1925, barely two weeks after his novel was first published.[2] He was survived by his wife, Gwen (née Empsall) his mother Jane and two sisters, Ellen and Sarah. Ellen worked for Florence Nightingale between 1885 and 1892 as cook and housekeeper.[5]

Notes

  1. ^ Robert Thomas Jenkins. "Owen, William David (1874-1925), lawyer and journalist". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b c "Madam Wen exhibition in Rhosneigr's threatened library". BBC News. 18 August 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  3. ^ Rhosneigr Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9562962-0-7
  4. ^ There had been an earlier English translation of Madam Wen, which was handwritten and bound into a book by one Richard Parry in 1937.
  5. ^ Letters in the Claydon House Trust Archives, Claydon House, Bucks, at Anglesey County Archives, Llangefni, and in a private collection.