Elsie Jeanette Oxenham (25 November 1880–9 January 1960) was an English girls’ story writer who took the name Oxenham as her pseudonym when her first book, Goblin Island, was published in 1907. Her Abbey Series of 38 titles are her best-known and best-loved books. In her lifetime she had 87 titles published, and another two have since been published by her niece, who discovered the manuscripts in the early 1990s.
She is regarded as being one of the major authors of girls’ stories in the first half of the twentieth century, being one of the ‘Big Three’ with Elinor Brent-Dyer and Dorita Fairlie Bruce. Angela Brazil is better known—probably more widely known—but did not write her books in a series about the same group of characters or set in the same place or school, as did the Big Three.
Biography
Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley was born in Southport, Lancashire, England, in November 1880, to an English father and a Scottish mother. The family moved before she was 2, to Ealing, West London, and here they spent almost forty years of their lives. Dunkerley and her two sisters went privately to schools; she also regularly attended the congregation of the church in Ealing. Of these six children—Elsie, Marjory, or Maida; Roderic; Theodora, or Theo; Erica; and Hugo Dunkerley—were Elsie, Marjory, or Maida; Roderic; Theodora, or Theo; Erica; and Hugo Dunkerley. They moved to Worthing, Sussex, in 1922 and spent time in five different houses while living in Ealing.
Why did Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley choose the pseudonym “Oxenham”?
When Goblin Island was published in 1907, she took the surname Oxenham as her pen name; her father, William Arthur Dunkerley, had used the pen name “John Oxenham” for many years prior to this. During the London years, Elsie Oxenham was associated with the British Camp Fire Girls movement and became a qualified guardian-leader of a group of Camp Fire Girls. She led this Camp Fire Group for nearly 6 years, up until the move to Sussex.
What is the Abbey Series About?
The Abbey of the series is almost a character in itself. Based on Cleeve Abbey in Somerset, it appears first as a romantic ruin in the second of the series, The Abbey Girls. The book ends with cousins Joan and Joy Shirley residing at Abinger Hall, of the gardens where the Abbey stands. Joy has been discovered to be the granddaughter of the late owner, Sir Antony Abinger and the Hall is left to her, but Joan, who was not related to Sir Antony, has been left the Abbey “Because of [her] love for it, and because [her] knowledge of it was so thorough.
“The Abbey and its influence pervades the whole series. Characters try to live up to the precepts of the early Cistercian monks who lived there, and even when facing difficult situations abroad, find that the Abbey ethos helps them find the way through to the right decision. Oxenham depicted herself directly and indirectly in several places within the Abbey series. As “The Writing Person” she is depicting herself as she was in the early 1920s, over 40 years of age, and going to the folk dance classes run by the English Folk Dance Society in London.
What are the Themes and influences in the writing of Elsie J. Oxenham?
Oxenham’s religious background was in Congregationalism. This gave a Protestant ethos to her writing and she expressed opinions. Many of her characters suffer through a tough time in life, and faith assists them in passing through the ordeal. Several of the books written in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly, include discussions between characters as to the meaning of life and the reasons behind events. These in-depth conversations tend to appear less frequently in the later books, but even as late as 1948, in A Fiddler for the Abbey Mary-Dorothy Devine, who has become “advisor-in-chief to the clan’’ talks to Rosalind Kane about the biblical concept of “rain falling on the just and the unjust” and the reasons behind the occurrence of both good and bad events.
Folk dancing
Folk dancing is a strong influence in many of the books. From Girls of the Hamlet Club (1914) and at School with the Roundheads (1915) until The Girls of the Abbey School (1921), it was shown as a fairly easy thing for girls to do and to teach each other. By the time of The Abbey Girls Go Back to School (1922), it is obvious that Oxenham herself had made contact with the English Folk Dance Society and learned that the dances were not so straightforward after all. The books written from that point for the next six or so years until Abbey Girls Win Through (1928) characterize members of the EFDS hierarchy with warmth and almost reverence.
Campfire
Camp Fire features prominently in many of Oxenham’s books between 1917 and 1940. Oxenham was a Camp Fire Guardian when she lived in Ealing, but the attempt to form a group in Sussex failed. Camp Fire’s ideals of Work, Health, and Love—’Wohelo’—and the training for young girls in household tasks and cookery it provided were integral to Oxenham’s philosophy and underlie the plots of several books. From the Camp Fire as an integral part of a school in A School Camp Fire (1917) and The Crisis in Camp Keema (1928) to the lone Camp Fire Girl, Barbara Holt, in The Junior Captain (1923)
Why Does Elsie Have an Important Place in Children’s Literature?
Elsie J. Oxenham is, among collectors of British Girls’ Fiction, one of the ‘Big Three,’ the other two being Elinor Brent-Dyer and Dorita Fairlie Bruce. While Angela Brazil is the first name to spring to mind for non-specialists, she did not create a long series as the other three did, and in terms of collecting and interest, Brazil is less popular than they are.
What is Elsie J. Oxenham best known for?
Oxenham was not the most prolific of these three, since she had 87 titles published during her lifetime (and another two were published by her niece, who discovered the manuscripts amongst Oxenham’s papers in the 1990s), whereas Brent-Dyer published 100 books of various kinds. Almost forty of Oxenham’s books make up the main Abbey Series, and another thirty or so are in several connected series, while the remaining twenty—some in small series of their own and some as isolated titles—are not.