Marie Belloc Lowndes

MARIE BELLOC LOWNDES was born in London, in 1868. From a very early age I wanted to be a writer. Worked as editorial assistant to the Director of the Pall Mall Gazette, William T. Stead. When he left office, wrote him a letter praising their qualities and abilities and foreseeing that his career would be brilliant, what happened. His first book was published in 1889, a biography entitled The Life and Letters of Charlotte Elizabeth, Princess Paladine. In this first phase of his literary life, he met and corresponded with Edmond de Goncourt, and also with Anatole France, Sarah Bernhardt, Jules Verne, Pierre Loti, Guy de Maupassant, Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet and even Verlaine. The marriage, in 1896, did not interrupt his literary work. On the contrary: it was her husband who encouraged her to move on from biography writing and articles for fiction. When he died, at the 78 years old, he had published more than 50 books, some of them of which translated into German, Dutch, French, Spanish, but never so far in Portuguese. The Guest has sold over a million copies in the original edition and continues to be re-edited and inspiring film directors.