Dorothy Gladys “Dodie” Smith was born in 1896 in Lancashire, England. She was one of the most successful female dramatists of her generation, she wrote “Autumn,” “Crocus,” and “Dear Octopus,” among other plays. Her first novel, I Capture the Castle (Little Brown, 1948) was written when she lived in America during the ‘40s and marked her crossover debut from playwright to novelist. The novel became an immediate success; it was also produced as a play in 1954. Her other novels were The Town in Bloom, It Ends With Revelations, A Tale of Two Families, and The Girl in the Candle-Lit Bath. Today however, she is best known for her stories for young readers, The Hundred and One Dalmatians (Heinemann, 1956) and The Starlight Barking (Heinemann, 1967; Simon & Schuster, 1968). The Hundred and One Dalmatians was inspired by Dodie’s own Dalmatian named Pongo, and became the basis of two Disney films. The Starlight Barking is also available in paperback from St. Martin’s Press. Dodie Smith died in 1990.

Books by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle

by Dodie Smith - Romance