Margaret Moore Kennedy demonstrated that she had the ability to tell a story which could effectively capture the imaginations of large numbers of the reading public with the publication of her second novel, The Constant Nymph (1924). Reprinted in a number of editions both in America and Britain, the latest of which was 1959, the novel was also adapted by Kennedy and Basil Dean for the stage and was successfully produced in both London and New York. The appeal of the story is further apparent as film versions of the novel were produced in 1934 (Fox), 1935 (Gaumont), and 1943 (Warner Brothers). Of the fifteen novels which Kennedy wrote, three others received special recognition: The Feast (1950) and Lucy Carmichael (1951), Literary Guild and Book Society choices, and Troy Chimneys (1952), recipient of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 1953.

In her history of the craft of fiction, The Outlaws on Parnassus (1958), she defended pleasure and...