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Marie Corelli
Marie Corelli was born Mary Mackay, the daughter of Charles Mackay, a
Scottish poet and song-writer. She became a talented pianist in her early
years and adopted the pseudonym of Marie Corelli. Later she turned to
writing romantic fiction. She moved to Stratford in 1901 and bought
Mason's Croft where she lived for many years. She became a local
legend in the town with her colourful life-style. My grandparents often told
me about her and her gondola in which she could regularly be seen on
the river. The postcards of her on this website have come down to me
from my grandparents - like the old theatre fire postcards, many
Stratford people seem to have collected them. Many of her books are in
print - see the Amazon link at the bottom of this page if you would like to
sample her work.
One more point - old Stratford people will know that her name was
always pronounced "Marry", not "Maree" !
Below are two photographs, sent to us by Richard Le Gallais, of Marie Corelli's pony being attended to by
a blacksmith. Richard is trying to identify the blacksmith, as his father-in-law's father, Harold Furby,
(incidentally the father of an old school-friend of mine at KES), used to work for the blacksmith. As far as
I can ascertain, the nearest forge to Marie's house would have been on Sheep Street, which is where my
grandfather, Fred Jones, had his business. This would have been the logical place for Marie to send her
pony to be shod and thus the blacksmith in the photos may well have been my grandfather's predecessor
at the Sheep Street premises, which I used to frequent as a child in the 1940s. My grandfather died in
1947.
If you can identify the blacksmith, please
contact us !!
Listen to Dia's CD, and while you
are listening, please
sign our Guest
Book - we appreciate suggestions,
corrections and constructive
criticism - or just say "Hello" and tell
us where you are from !
Thanks ! Now buy the CD :-) !
Follow this link to read about Marie Corelli, Fred Winter and the row
about the Public Library in Henley Street
WOULD YOU LIKE a reproduction of one or more of the postcards on this website ? Look out for a (Z) beneath the image. This means that a reproduction is available to buy on Zazzle - click on the (Z). Cards cost 95p each plus postage, with big discounts for bulk orders........................Please support our advertisers. Without them we would be unable to keep this site running, so bid on a mower on eBay or buy some of Marie Corelli's books from Amazon. Thanks !
Marie Corelli Fined for Hoarding Sugar.
The New York Times for 3 January 1918 reported a trial at Stratford-upon-Avon Police Court the previous
day at which Marie Corelli was fined for unlawfully hoarding sugar, then an offence because of food
shortages during World War 1. Counsel for the Ministry of Food said that on the basis of half a pound of
sugar per head per week, her household was entitled to have purchased 32 lbs of sugar during the
months in question, whereas it actually obtained 179 lbs, plus 50 lbs of preserving sugar. Miss Corelli's
defence was that the sugar was used for jam making and that the current regulations did not apply to
this. Her counsel contended that she acted patriotically in preserving fruit for future use. When the police
called at her house, she is reported to have said "You are upsetting the country altogether with your food
orders. Lloyd George will be resigning tomorrow and there will be a revolution in less than a week." She
was fined £50 with £21 costs.
We have recently (April 2010) been contacted by Monica Cure from the USA about three of our postcards
of Marie Corelli. Monica is writing a writing a doctoral dissertation on turn-of-the-century literature. She
came across a report in the New York Times for 13 May 1906 about another court case involving Marie
Corelli in which the novelist applied for in injunction to restrain A and E Wall of Stratford-upon-Avon from
publishing picture postcards purporting to depict scenes in her private life.
Miss Corelli's counsel stated that the defendants produced sets of
postcards called "The Distinguished Authors Series". Objection to the
cards was at once taken by Miss Corelli and the judge was asked to
compare them with a recent photo of Miss Corelli from which he
would see what a gross libel had been perpetrated on her features.
One card was styled "Shakespeare and his Contemporaries", from
which it was inferred that the defendants were suggesting that
Shakespeare and Miss Corelli were contemporaries.
Considerable annoyance had been occasioned to Miss Corelli by the publication of the cards, and the
offence was aggravated by the fact that after the stationers and W H Smith and Son at
Stratford-upon-Avon had stopped selling the cards, the defendants employed a large body of sandwich
men to parade the place, including the front of Miss Corelli's house, with notices that the cards could be
obtained at the defendants' place of business or private house. This had made the private life of Miss
Corelli intolerable. The judge granted the injunction.
Counsel read the affidavit of Miss Corelli in which she stated that she went to Stratford-upon-Avon for the
purpose of obtaining privacy, and had never consented to the publication of the cards, which were
calculated to expose her to unjust contempt in relation to her private life and prejudice her in her
profession as an authoress.
The affidavit of Miss Edith Wall, in reply, declared that, so far from seeking privacy at Stratford-upon-Avon,
Miss Corelli had courted publicity in every way. If the portraits of Miss Corelli had been flattering, nothing
would have been heard of the action. Very few ladies would admit that a photo did them justice, and it was
assumed that Miss Corelli was no exception to the rule. If that was a libel, every exhibition at the Royal
Academy would result in a collection of libels.
The case was adjourned.

Monica is continuing her research to try to discover what happened. Three of the postcards are
reproduced above. The signature on them is clearly A Wall. There must be others too, so if anyone can
help with more information about this case, or more images, we would be most grateful. Contact us at
gregoryolney@aol.com.  
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