Dodie Smith

Full Name: Dorothy Gladys Smith
Profession: Writer

Nationality:

Biography: Dodie Smith is best known for her novels "I Capture the Castle" (1948) and "The Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1956). "I Capture the Castle" was voted one of Britain's 100 most beloved novels in a 2003 BBC survey called The Big Read. Smith's novel "The Hundred and One Dalmatians," meanwhile, was adapted into popular animated and live-action films by Disney.

Smith showed an early love for theater, encouraged by her grandfather. She wrote her first play at age 10 and later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, going on to act in various stage productions. While working at a furniture store, she began writing plays.

Smith had her first major success with the 1931 play "Autumn Crocus," written under a pseudonym. Later hit plays included "Call It a Day" (1936) and "Dear Octopus" (1938), the latter featuring famous actors Dame Marie Tempest and Sir John Gielgud. Theater critic Brooks Atkinson called Smith the "appointed recorder" of English family life.

In the 1940s, Smith and her husband Alec Beesley moved to the United States. Homesick for England, she wrote her debut novel "I Capture the Castle" (1948) while living in Pennsylvania. Her love of Dalmatian dogs with Beesley inspired her children's novel "The Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1956).

Born: May 3, 1896
Birthplace: Whitefield, Lancashire, England

Generation: Lost Generation
Star Sign: Taurus

Died: November 24, 1990 (aged 94)