author
Dolf Wyllarde
1871–1950
A prolific British journalist and storyteller, this early 20th-century writer published more than 30 books across fiction, verse, and children's literature. Writing under a name that often led reviewers to assume she was a man, she built a lively career in popular literature from the 1890s into the 1930s.
1 Audiobook
The rat-trap
by Dolf Wyllarde
About the author
Born Dorothy Margarette Selby Lowndes in Croydon on April 3, 1871, she wrote under the pen name Dolf Wyllarde. She worked as a journalist as well as a writer of fiction and verse, and sources note that she published more than 30 books between 1897 and 1939.
Her work ranged widely, including novels, short stories, poetry, and children's books. Part of her interest today comes from the way her chosen pen name blurred expectations: contemporary reviewers sometimes assumed Dolf Wyllarde was a man, which gives her career an extra layer of literary and social history.
She died on May 10, 1950, in Weston-super-Mare. Though not as widely read now as some of her contemporaries, she remains an intriguing figure from the world of British popular fiction and journalism.