View Full Version : Lorna Nicholl Morgan
Someone - I assume a woman - wrote four novels under that name between 1944 and 1947.
No more, no less.
Either subsequent novels were a different genre and so written under a different name, or she married/died/changed profession
Her last novel, a murder mystery, suggests a youngish but assured hand. As her heroine, with nothing to suggest a reason, has a Welsh name, I suspect Welsh roots.
Nobody seems to know anything about the author.
Can anyone find out anything, bearing in mind that this may be a pen-name?
I've found out there's no S on the Nicholl :D
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:26
US Social Security Applications and Claims Index, on Ancestry:
Name: Lorna Nicholl Morgan [Lorna N Morgan] [Lorna Nicholl Bennett]
Birth Date: 20 Aug 1913
Birth Place: New Malden S, United Kingdom
Death Date: 15 Nov 1993
Claim Date: 17 Jul 1975
Father: Edgar G Bennett
Mother: Isabelle A Watkins
SSN: 085300462
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:29
There is a birth reg for Lorna Bennett, MMN Watkins, Jul-Sep 1913 Kingston.
And a marriage Jan-Mar 1937 Pancras between Lorna Bennett and Geoffrey C N Morgan. I bet the N in his name stands for Nicholl.
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:32
Okay, Geoffrey C N Morgan birth reg Oct-Dec 1910 Cardiff. Looking on the GRO site, his full name was Geoffrey Charles Nicholl Morgan.
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:36
She actually died in England - Lorna Morgan dob 20 Aug 1913, died Nov 1993 Hastings and Rother, East Sussex.
The US Social Security Index shows her SSN was issued between 1954 and 1956 in New York.
Geoffrey Morgan is a journalist in 1939.
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:40
National Probate Calendar:
Morgan, Lorna
Of 44 Collier Road Hastings East Sussex
Died 16 November 1993 Administration Brighton 23 December [1993]
Not exceeding £125000
9351326171R.
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:48
Lorna Morgan, 41, novelist, travelling to New York in July 1954:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2997/images/41039_b001752-00349?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=dNx63765&_phstart=successSource&pId=138846228
Country of intended future permanent residence: USA.
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:54
Geoffrey C N Morgan death registered Apr-Jun 1940 Thanet, age 29.
kiterunner
17-09-20, 15:58
And here is the CWGC page for Geoffrey,with his age wrongly shown as 30:
https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2429772/GEOFFREY%20CHARLES%20NICHOLL%20MORGAN/
kiterunner
17-09-20, 16:01
Ah, we're not the first to figure this out:
http://www.crimefictioniv.com/Part_15A.html
Well done, ladies!!
I did find one site that was asking for details, but not the one that resolved the questions.
At risk of being redundant, because I truly can't remember whether or not I already passed this intriguing information along here, the revelations described in this link might be just the test for your question, Phoenix, as to whether there were subsequent novels of perhaps a different genre under a different name.
Can You Tell an Author’s Identity By Looking at Punctuation Alone?
A Study Just Found Out. (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/570471/study-can-you-tell-authors-identity-just-by-punctuation)
kiterunner
18-09-20, 12:36
Phoenix, would you like me to correct the title so that anyone Googling for information about her has a chance of finding this thread?
Ah, we're not the first to figure this out:
http://www.crimefictioniv.com/Part_15A.html
Hello,
I have just started a book by Lorna Nicholl Morgan, Another Little Murder, and am enjoying it and I wanted to know more about her. There seems to be very little information on the internet but I came across this thread. When I clicked on the link that you had posted my browser gave me a message saying that the site was a security risk so I didn't proceed. Could you tell me if it throws any more light on Mrs Morgan please?
Thank you.
kiterunner
11-01-21, 22:57
It says the following:
MORGAN, LORNA NICHOLL. 1913-1993. Born Lorna Bennett in Kingston, Surrey, England; married Lt. Geoffrey Charles Nicholl Morgan in 1937; died in Hastings, Sussex. (Adding the dates and biographical details for the author of four 1940s novels in CFIV.)
It says the following:
MORGAN, LORNA NICHOLL. 1913-1993. Born Lorna Bennett in Kingston, Surrey, England; married Lt. Geoffrey Charles Nicholl Morgan in 1937; died in Hastings, Sussex. (Adding the dates and biographical details for the author of four 1940s novels in CFIV.)
Thank you. It's strange that so little information is available about someone who published four books and lived relatively recently.
Hi Mauriac, good to know I wasn't the only person intrigued by the author.
With any individual, the amount of information we can discover about them will depend on the length of time they have been in the public view, whether they were still in the public view when they died, if they were self-publicists and whether they had children.
Lorna only wrote four novels, then lived in the US for several years, and had no children (that we know of!)
Novelists today rely on publicity to get published, to get read, but plenty in the past used pen-names, particularly women, specifically to protect their privacy.
I have acquired another of Lorna's books on the strength of the first, but I suspect that if she had made oodles of money or received rave reviews, she might have continued and the books continued in print.
Hi Mauriac, good to know I wasn't the only person intrigued by the author.
With any individual, the amount of information we can discover about them will depend on the length of time they have been in the public view, whether they were still in the public view when they died, if they were self-publicists and whether they had children.
Lorna only wrote four novels, then lived in the US for several years, and had no children (that we know of!)
Novelists today rely on publicity to get published, to get read, but plenty in the past used pen-names, particularly women, specifically to protect their privacy.
I have acquired another of Lorna's books on the strength of the first, but I suspect that if she had made oodles of money or received rave reviews, she might have continued and the books continued in print.
Yes, people who lived prior to the advent of the internet aren't always easy to find out about. The book I am reading suggests a very intelligent author with a lively wit, which made me want to know more about her
Precisely! And I find contemporary novels far more interesting than historical novels, which make mistakes we won't even recognise.
The only thing that puzzled me is that they must all have been travelling with huge quantities of fags, since they all seemed to chain smoke :D
Precisely! And I find contemporary novels far more interesting than historical novels, which make mistakes we won't even recognise.
The only thing that puzzled me is that they must all have been travelling with huge quantities of fags, since they all seemed to chain smoke :D
And in these 'golden age' detective novels they all have loads of servants - lucky things!
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