Enid Blyton Revisit , Rare Story and Portrait (Part 2)

See Part 1 HERE.

Enid Blyton articles and portraits from old newspaper scan:

A One Woman Book Factory - written by Evelyn Irons

The Western Mail July 5, 1951 (Australia)

The children's Edgar Wallace types ten thousand words a day

A One-Woman Book Factory

by EVELYN IRONS (London Express Service)

ENID BLYTON, the children's Edgar Wallace, has published a complete list of her books. Her fans have to pay 6d. for it. It shows that this prodigious yarn-spinner, still in her forties, has 250 books in print. She estimates that  altogether she has written some 300.

When Edgar Wallace died at nearly 57, his output had reached 170. Wallace's daily 12,000 words were put on paper with the help of two lightning secretaries and a dictaphone.

Enid Blyton uses no such aids. She sits on a chintz-covered swing couch in her garden at Beaconsfield with a portable typewriter on her knee, and the story pours from the production line at the rate of 10,000 words a day (15,000 at full pressure).

She has six books at the proof stage to correct. She has just finished writing another, a nature book begun six days ago. ("I just worked on it at odd times.")

Letters arrive from children all over the world and she answers every one in her own hand. ("Children would not care for typewritten letters.") Her 23 publishers also get handwritten letters-pages of them on both sides of the paper-detailing all the preliminary business.

She Is A Company

SOMETIMES the business is complex but mere legal intricacies never defeat this one-woman book factory. She calls in no lawyers; herself drafted the standard contract (15 per cent royalties for herself except in special circumstances when she may reduce it for the sake of getting better presentation) which she imposes on all her publishers alike.

One stipulation she makes-no niggling about numbers. The first edition must be 25,000, or the deal is off. Several of her books have sold more than 1,000,000 copies. How much does she make? ' Far more than the £10,000 a year usually estimated. Probably nearer the £50,000 which Edgar Wallace was said to get.

"I don't know exactly," she says, looking her quizzer straight in the eye.

Like other individuals making a lot of money, Enid Blyton has turned herself into a limited company. That, she says, takes care of the receiving end. ("You see, the children's appreciation is my real reward.")

2 1\2 Per Cent

HER book of children's prayers, "Before I Go to Sleep," brings in £300 to £500 a year, she says. That is one cheque she does not receive. It goes to a children's charity. Add to her income from the 250 children's books her 2 1/2 per cent royalties from all the commercial products to which the Enid Blyton name is lent-diaries, writing paper, jigsaws. Not to mention the card and board games she devises as a sideline. Plus royalties on over 200 school readers and other educational textbooks, lt's a dizzy sum.

Sometimes a snooty critic lashes at the Blyton books. Sometimes a children's librarian wails that his clients are too Blytonised to read Dickens. Enid Blyton types serenely on. "I am not a malicious person' says she.

She started to write as a schoolgirl in Beckenham, where she was born, treasures a collection of 500 rejection slips. Her first published work was a love poem in "Nash's Magazine," for which 16-year-old Enid got one guinea.

She was a competent pianist, and her father disapproved of the writing; planned a musical career. Instead, she broke away and took the Froebel training, taught in a kindergarten.

("I always loved children and was happiest in their company.")

She burst into authorship when, as a student, a publisher paid her £72 down for a set of six English readers for schools.

Subconscious Cinema

SHE sits down at her typewriter without plot or synopsis. Figures, she says, appear before" her eyes as on a cinema screen. They move, they talk, they sing their own original tunes. Other characters appear: the story unfolds. "All I have to do is to type it out as fast as I can," says Enid Blyton. She reckons that she must have a singularly obliging subconscious mind.

Some of her child readers seek her out at Beaconsfield; she has met thousands of others at meetings organised by booksellers and publishers.

At home she is Mrs. Kenneth Darrell Waters, wife of a surgeon, mother of two daughters, one an art student at St. Andrew's University and the other at boarding-school. Her two servant house is well-ordered: so is her 3-acre garden, kept by the gardener aided by the chaffeur. "One of my extravagances," she said indicating a thousand bush roses in beds laid out round a pool.

She has a big Daimler, but she prefers driving herself around in her small, fast, green saloon. Her husband drives to his hospital in a Rolls.

Golf, Bridge, T.V.

SHE is angered by suppositions that she spent a lot of money buying Studland Bay golf course. "My husband bought it," she says. Both are keen golfers: play twice a week. They also enjoy tennis on their own hard court, play bridge, watch TV, work in the garden. With all her colossal output, Enid Blyton is no slave to her art.

In a smart new black dress, she took time off to spend Gold Cup Day at Ascot, with her husband and elder daughter Gillian. Quite a step from the old days when she taught in a Baptist Sunday school at Beckenham. World Copyright Reserved

Illustrations from Enid Blyton's Famous Five novel - this one from Famous Five Adventures Book, written by Stephen Traves and Illustrated by Gary Rees

Ilustrasi buku LIMA SEKAWAN karya Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton in the library of her home

Enid Blyton portraiture 1951

Enid Blyton "Boy" adventure series :

The Barney 'R'  Mysteries 6 books, (Seri Komplotan in Bahasa Indonesia)
Roger Lynton (14) , Diana Lynton (13), Snubby (Peter 11), Barney (Barnabas 15) Loony (jet black spaniel), Miranda (Monkey)

The Adventure Series 8 books (Seri Petualangan in Bahasa Indonesia)
Philip Mannering, Lucy-Ann Trent (11), Jack Trent (14),Dinah Mannering (12) Kiki (Scarlet Parrot with big crest)

The Famous Five 21 books (Seri LIMA SEKAWAN in Bahasa Indonesia)
Julian Kirrin (12), Dick (11), George (Georgina) Kirrin (11), Anne (10) Timmy (mongrel)

Five Find-Outers / Mystery Series 15 books (Seri Pasukan Mau Tahu)
Larry (Laurence Daykin 13), Fatty (Frederick Trotteville 12), Pip (Philip Hilton 12), Daisy (Margaret Daykin 12), Bets (Elizabeth Hilton 8) Buster (Scottish Terrier)

The Secret Series 5 books (Seri Empat Serangkai in Bahasa Indonesia)
Peggy Arnold, Mike Arnold, Nora Arnold, Jack, Prince Paul of Baronia

Secret Seven 15 books  (Seri Sapta Siaga)
Peter, Janet, Jack, Pamela, Barbara, Colin, Georgem Scamper (English Cocker Spaniel)

Adventurous Four 2+1 books (Seri Empat Petualang)

Jill, Mary, Tom , Andy

Lihat Juga Link-link di blog ini mengenai Enid Blyton:
- Enid Blyton Revisit Part 1, Part 2 - Foto Enid Blyton
- Novel Seri Petualangan - Enid Blyton
- Novel Seri Lima Sekawan - Enid Blyton
- Novel Seri Pasukan Mau Tahu - Enid Blyton
- Novel Seri Komplotan - Enid Blyton
- Novel Seri Empat Serangkai - Enid Blyton
- Novel Seri Empat Petualang - Enid Blyton
- Novel Seri Sapta Siaga - Enid Blyton
- Lost Poetries of Enid Blyton
- The Blyton Story - 1953 Newspaper article about Enid Blyton

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