Person

Smith, Pauline

1882-1959

Pauline Janet Smith, eldest daughter of Herbert Urmson and Jessie Smith, was born in Oudtshoorn on 2 April 1882. Her father had gone to South Africa because of his health and was the first resident physician in the Little Karoo. In 1895 Pauline and her sister Dorothy (b. 2.7.1884) were sent to a boarding school in Britain, and it was during a visit to them in 1898 that Dr Smith died suddenly in London. The Smith family never returned to live permanently in South Africa. After the sisters left school, they and their mother stayed with various relations in England and Scotland and visited the Continent. Miss Smith's first published short stories were about Scottish village life and appeared in the Scottish newspapers, 'The Weekly Free Press' and 'The Evening Gazette' between 1902 and 1905. These were published under the pseudonyms, Janet Tamson and Janet Urmson. In 1905 Miss Smith returned to the Little Karoo for her first visit since 1895, and kept a diary of her stay. In December 1908 she met the English novelist, Arnold Bennett, while on holiday in Vevey, Switzerland. They discussed her writing and he encouraged her to concentrate on writing about the Little Karoo. Bennett had an extremely important influence on her career as a writer, and most of her writing took place during his lifetime. In the autumn of 1909, Miss Smith stayed with the Bennetts at Fontainbleau, and in 1910 travelled with them to Italy, where they stayed in Florence until she became ill. At this time her sister Dorothy became engaged to Alexander Webster, a friend of Bennett's. During 1913 and 1914 Miss Smith again visited South Africa and kept a detailed travel journal. Some of the anecdotes recorded in this journal were used to form the bases of short stories and a novel. It was through Bennett that her first short story 'The Pain' was published in 'The Adelphi', a journal edited by Middelton Murray. Shortly afterwards Jonathan Cape published her first collection of short stories, 'The Little Karoo', in 1925. Her novel 'The Beadle' was published the following year. During 1926 and 1927, Miss Smith again visited South Africa, and in 1928 and 1929 spent some time in Italy. In 1930 'The Little Karoo' was reissued with two additional stories, 'Desolation' and 'The Father'. In 1931 Arnold Bennett died, and Miss Smith wrote a tribute to him published in 1933 as A.B. ... 'a minor marginal note'. She spent most of 1934, 1935 and the first half of 1936 in South Africa, and it was in 1935 that the short stories she had written for children many years before, were finally published as 'Platkops Children'. Pauline Smith suffered from ill health all her life, and during the 1950s, when she was trying to write 'Winter Sacrament' as a possible ending to 'The Little Karoo', suffered a series of heart attacks which prevented her from completing the work to her satisfaction. She spent many years living with her sister, Dorothy, in Dorset, and died there on 29 January 1959.

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