Dodie Smith
(1896-1990), Novelist and playwrightSitter in 3 portraits
Author of the enduringly popular novels I Capture the Castle (1948) and The Hundred and One Dalmations (1956), Smith trained as an actress but gave up the theatre to work in the furniture store Heal & Son. Her first play Autumn Crocus (1929) attracted headlines: 'Shopgirl writes play'. She became one of the most successful playwrights of the 1930s. A pacifist, Smith spent the war years with her husband and her Dalmation dog, Pongo, in Hollywood, working as a scriptwriter. In England she continued to write novels and autobiographies.
by Anthony Buckley
modern bromide print from original negative, 1953
NPG x76051
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