User:Duhknees/Josephine aimee campbell leslie

Josephine Aimee Campbell Leslie (1898-1979), Scottish novelist, was best known for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which she wrote under the name of R. A. Dick in 1945 and which was later made into a movie starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison by Twentieth Century Fox. The popularity of the film led to an American television series in the 1960's starring Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare.(1)

Early Life

Leslie was born June 8, 1898, in Wexford, Ireland, though she spent most of her life in Scotland on the Black Isle in the county of Ross and Cromarty, which contains the city of Muir of Ord, from which she got the name of her most famous character. She attended Princess Helena College near London. (1)

Leslie died April 28, 1979.

Career

Leslie wrote several novels and two plays under the pseudonym of R.A. Dick, but none achieved the popularity of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in 1945. The book was optioned by Twentieth Century Fox and made into a movie starring Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in 1947. The story, involving a widow who buys the home of a former sea captain and finds his ghost still haunts the house, ironically involves the idea that women can't write anything exciting. The widow, Lucy, agrees to "ghost write" a memoir of the salty sea captain's life in order to save the house, promising to leave it in her will to aging seamen.

Leslie's later work never achieved the same level of fame. She wrote Witch Errant: An Improbable Comedy in Three Acts in 1959 and The Devil and Mrs. Devine, about another widow who must rely on a supernatural character, in 1975. Both were published under her own name.(3)

References

1 Internet Movie Database. IMDB.com

2 Josephine Aimee Campbell Leslie. LibraryThing.com

3 Clute, John, and John Grant The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. 1999.