Autumn Crocus

by Dodie Smith

Genres: Plays

127 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Born Dorothy Gladys Smith in Lancashire, England, Dodie Smith was raised in Manchester (her memoir is titled A Childhood in Manchester). She was just an infant when her father died, and she grew up fatherless until age 14, when her mother remarried and the family moved to London. There she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and tried for a career as an actress, but with little success. She finally wound up taking a job as a toy buyer for a furniture store to make ends meet. Giving up dreams of an acting career, she turned to writing plays, and in 1931 her first play, Autumn Crocus, was published (under the pseudonym “C.L. Anthony”). It was a success, and her story — from failed actress to furniture store employee to successful writer — captured the imagination of the public and she was featured in papers all over the country. Although she could now afford to move to a London townhouse, she didn't get caught up in the “literary” scene — she married a man who was a fellow employee at the furniture store.

During World War II she and her husband moved to the United States, mostly because of his stand as a conscientious objector and the social and legal difficulties that entailed. She was still homesick for England, though, as reflected in her first novel, I Capture the Castle (1948). During her stay she formed close friendships with such authors as Christopher Isherwood and John Van Druten, and was aided in her literary endeavors by writer A.J. Cronin.

She is perhaps best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, a hugely popular childrens book that has been made into a string of very successful animated films by Walt Disney. She died in 1990.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5, rounded up.

Although attributed to her pseudonym, C. L. Anthony, this was the first play to be written by the incomparable Dodie Smith, performed in 1931 to huge acclaim and a successful 10-month run (the theatre it was playing in actually added 35 additional seats to accommodate the demand!). It's a deliciously delightful little bagatelle, a light romantic comedy concerning the inhabitants of a charming little inn outside Innsbruck, Austria just after WWI.

The focus is on dowdy English schoolmarm Fanny Gray (played by Fay Compton both on stage and in a later film version costarring Ivor Novello - see below), who is brought to life through a budding (scandalous!) romance with the married German innkeeper, Andreas Steiner. Although she is initially persuaded to stay with him and leave her traveling companion, the dour Edith, to travel on alone to Venice, she eventually comes to her senses and departs, knowing that her experience will have changed the rest of her life for the better, even if the romance fades like the titular flowers. Jessica Tandy and Jack Hawkins, who would marry a year afterwards, played the equally 'modern' young couple who are living 'in sin' as an experiment. It's all just silly, bittersweet nonsense, but it would be terrific to be seen on stage once again.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?vi...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzYZF...

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bittersweet romance. Travel, mountains, and love fuel dreams of escape from the daily grind.

[Tamsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, I've finished reading all of Smith's lovely books, and now am moving onto her plays, in publication order! (Yes, I am a nerd.)

This is her first play, written as a first draft over 6 weeks at the end of 1929 and over the start of 1930 (King, 71). Basil Dean produced the play in April 1931 with actors Fay Compton, Francis Lederer, Jessica Tandy, Jack Hawkins, and Martita Hunt. I found it really quite delightful like all of Smith's work, and laughed aloud twice (impressive if you know me). I think it would have been fun to see 'live.' A bit depressing at the end, but how else would it go?

If you love Dodie, you should read Valerie King's Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith. It is well-researched and enjoyable to read as a bonus. All my Autumn Crocus facts here are from her work which I will reference for you! I read Dear Dodie last year, but since my memory is shit I had to go back and re-read sections from the book. The only thing I could remember on my own is that her first play was very well-received, as the audience was well-posed to receive a bit of charm after the war and great depression.

Some info from Dear Dodie:

"It was a brilliantly eccentric stroke to have the first ten minutes spoken entirely in German. As Dodie said, she had often missed hearing the opening scenes of plays because of people arriving late in the stalls." (King, 71)

"'Despite her inexperience as a dramatist,' Basil later wrote in his autobiography, 'she had no intention of being present as a mere symbol of authorship. Quite the contrary. Watching her at rehearsal put me in mind of a particular robin in my garden who arrives every autumn, so tame that I have known him to alight upon a lately used space, watching my every move with sharp eyes, and ready for swift action against any intrusion upon his territory or privilege.'" (King, 76)

"Dodie had become, almost overnight, richer than she had ever imagined possible; she bought a glamorous grey coat... for forty guineas." (King, 80)