DEATH OF NOVELIST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 206, 31 July 1937, Page 13

DEATH OF NOVELIST.

The death occurred in Auckland this week of the well-known novelist, Mrs Mary Stuart Boyd, aged 76, widow of the late Mr Alexander Boyd, an eminent English artist and illustrator. Mrs Boyd forpied many literary friendships in her lifetime with writers of the standing of Sir James Barrie and Bret Harte, the popular American ' author, and she possessed a rare collection of signed first editions. Her library included an original manuscript of Rudyard Kipling’s epic poem, “The Road to Mandalay.” In addition to being a notable contributor to London magazines, Mrs Boyd commenced a successful career as a novelist in 1900 with the publication of “Our Stolen Summer,” and this wasfollowed by a further ten books, the last of which, “The Mystery of the Castle,” was issued in 1911. When Mr and Mrs Boyd lived in London their home was a regular meeting-place for a distinguished coterie of English artists and authors. Literary figures who ranged as friends besides Sir James Barrie and Bret Harte included W. Pett Ridge, Neil Munro, the Scots novelist, W. W. Jacobs, and W. E. Henry, former editor of the Scots Observer.

Mrs Boyd’s library at her homo at Takapuna contained an amazing collection of first editions, many of which were signed by the authors. Frequently these also contained illustrations by Mr Hart, who undertook a considerable amount of this work at the close of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Mr and Mrs Boyd paid their first visit to New Zealand in about 1899, and following the death of their son, Lieutenant; Stuart Boyd, a painter who had also exhibited at the Royal Academy, they took up residence m Auckland in 1920. Mr Boyd died in 1930.