E. S. Drower
Ethel, Lady Drower (née Ethel May Stefana Stevens;[1] 1 December 1879 – 27 January 1972) was a British cultural anthropologist, orientalist and novelist who studied the Middle East and its cultures.[2] She was and is still considered one of the primary specialists on the Mandaeans, and was the dedicated collector of Mandaean manuscripts.[3]
Ethel Stefana Drower
1 December 1879
27 January 1972 (aged 92)
British
Sir Edwin Drower
Margaret Stefana Drower, William Mortimer Drower, Denys Drower
Biography[edit]
The daughter of a clergyman, in 1906, she was working for Curtis Brown, a London literary agency when she signed Arthur Ransome to write Bohemia in London.
In 1911, she married Edwin Drower and after his knighthood became Lady Drower. As E. S. Stevens, she wrote a series of romantic novels for Mills & Boon and other publishers. In 1921, she accompanied her husband to Iraq where Sir Edwin Drower was adviser to the Justice Minister from 1921 to 1947.[2] Among her grandchildren was the campaigning journalist Roly Drower.
Her works include the comprehensive description and display of the last practising gnostic Mandaeans' rituals, rites, and customs in The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: Their Cults, Customs, Magic, Legends, and Folklore, The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans (a translation of the Qolasta), The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis, and The Peacock Angel (novel about the Yezidis),[4] editions of unique manuscripts such as astronomical divinations (omen) (The Book of the Zodiac) and magical texts (A Book of Black Magic;[5] A Phylactery for Rue),[6] and relevant translations of Mandaean religious works such as The Haran Gawaita and the Baptism of Hibil-Ziwa and The Coronation of the Great Šišlam.[2] Drower's final major work titled Mass and Masiqta or Messiah, Mass and Masiqta remains unpublished to this day, and it is unclear if the full manuscript exists.[7]
Before her scholarly activity, "Already under her maiden name of Ethel Stefana Stevens, Lady Drower had been inspired by the Orient. Between 1909 and 1927, she published 13 novels, and she was the author of two delectable books of travel."[8][2]
Ethel, Lady Drower died on 27 January 1972, aged 92. She was survived by her children, including daughter, Margaret "Peggy" Hackforth-Jones, and other family members.[9]
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Drower received several honours for her scholarly contributions:
Letters[edit]
In 2012, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley published a compiled collection of E. S. Drower's letters. The book includes texts of Drower's correspondence with Cyrus H. Gordon, Rudolf Macuch, Sidney H. Smith, Godfrey R. Driver, Samuel H. Hooke, and Franz Rosenthal.[12]
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