Anna Leonowens
Anna Leonowens | |
---|---|
Born | Ann Hariett Emma Edwards 5 November 1831 |
Died | 19 January 1915 | (aged 83)
Resting place | Mount Royal Cemetery |
Spouse |
Thomas Leon (or Lane/Lean) Owens
(m. 1849; died 1859) |
Children | 4, including Louis T. Leonowens |
Relatives | Boris Karloff (great-nephew) |
Anna Harriette Leonowens (born Ann Hariett Emma Edwards; travel writer, educator, and social activist.
She became well known with the publication of her memoirs, beginning with The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870), which chronicled her experiences in
During the course of her life, Leonowens also lived in
Early life and family
Anna Leonowens's mother, Mary Ann Glascott, married her father,
Leonowens's maternal grandfather, William Vawdrey (or Vaudrey) Glascott, was an English-born
For most of her adult life, Anna Leonowens had no contact with her family and took pains to disguise her origins by claiming that she had been born with the surname "Crawford" in Caernarfon, Wales, and giving her father's rank as captain. By doing so, she protected not only herself but her children, who would have had greater opportunities if their possibly mixed-race heritage remained unknown. Investigations uncovered no record of her birth at Caernarfon, news which came as a shock to the town that had long claimed her as one of its most famous natives.[9]
A few months after Anna's birth, her mother remarried. The stepfather was Patrick Donohoe, an Irish Catholic corporal of the Royal Engineers. The family relocated repeatedly within Western India, following the stepfather's regiment. In 1841, they settled in Deesa, Gujarat.[10] Anna attended the Bombay Education Society's girls school in Byculla (now a neighbourhood of Mumbai) that admitted "mixed-race" children whose military fathers were either dead or absent.[11] Leonowens later said she had attended a British boarding school and had arrived in India, a supposedly "strange land" to her, only at the age of 15.[12] Anna's relationship with her stepfather, Donohoe, was not a happy one, and she later accused him of putting pressure on her, like her sister, to marry a much older man. In 1847, Donohoe was seconded as assistant supervisor of public works in Aden, Yemen. Whether the rest of the family went with him or stayed in India is unsure.[13]
On 24 April 1845, Anna's 15-year-old sister, Eliza Julia Edwards, married James Millard, a sergeant-major with the 4th Troop Artillery, Indian Army in Deesa. Anna served as a witness to this marriage.
Leonowens later said she had gone on a three-year tour through Egypt and the Middle East with the orientalist Reverend George Percy Badger and his wife. However, recent biographies consider this episode to be fictitious. Anna may have met Badger in India and listened to or read reports about his travels.[18][19]
Marriage, Western Australia and widowhood
Anna Edwards's husband-to-be, Thomas Leon Owens, an Irish Protestant from Enniscorthy, County Wexford, went to India with the 28th Regiment of Foot in 1843. From a private, he rose to the position of paymaster's clerk (rather than the army officer suggested by her memoir) in 1844, serving first in Poona, and from December 1845 until 1847 in Deesa.[20] Biographer Alfred Habegger characterises him as "well read and articulate, strongly opinionated, historically informed, and almost a gentleman". Anna Edwards, who was seven years his junior, fell in love with him.[21] However, her mother and stepfather objected to the relationship, as the suitor had poor prospects for gainful employment, and had been temporarily downgraded from sergeant to private for an unspecified offense. Nevertheless, Anna and Thomas Leon Owens married on Christmas Day 1849 in the Anglican church of Poona. In the marriage certificate, Thomas merged his second and last names to 'LeonOwens'. Patrick Donohoe signed the document as well, contradicting Leonowens's account that her stepfather had violently opposed the marriage.[22] She gave birth to her first daughter, Selina, in December 1850.[23] The girl died at just seventeen months.[24]
In 1852, the young couple, accompanied by Anna's uncle, W. V. Glasscott, sailed to
Anna Leonowens – using her middle name of Harriett – tried to establish a school for young ladies. In March 1854, the infant Thomas died at the age of 13 months,[28] and, later that year, a daughter, Avis Annie, was born.[29] In 1855, Thomas Leonowens was appointed to Glasscott's former position with the commissariat at Lynton, and the family moved there.[30] At Lynton, Anna Leonowens gave birth to a son, Louis.[31] During late 1856, Thomas Leonowens also served briefly as magistrate's clerk under William Burges.[32] Like Glasscott, Thomas clashed with Burges but survived until the Convict Depot was closed in 1857, and he was transferred to a more senior position with the Commissariat in Perth.[32]
The Leonowens family left Australia abruptly in April 1857, sailing to Singapore,[33] and then moving to Penang, where Thomas found work as a hotel keeper.[34] In or before the first week of May 1859, Thomas Leonowens died of "apoplexy" and was buried (7 May 1859) in the Protestant Cemetery in Penang.[35] His death left Anna Leonowens an impoverished widow. Of their four children, two had died in infancy. She returned to Singapore, where she created a new identity as a Welsh-born lady and widow of a British army major.[36] To support her surviving daughter Avis and son Louis, Leonowens again took up teaching and opened a school for the children of British officers in Singapore. While the enterprise was not a financial success, it established her reputation as an educator.[37]
Teacher at the Siamese court
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2021) |
In 1862, Leonowens accepted an offer made by the
Leonowens served at court until 1867, a period of nearly six years, first as a teacher and later as language secretary for the King. Although her position carried great respect and even a degree of political influence, she did not find the terms and conditions of her employment to her satisfaction. And, despite her position at the king's court, she was never invited into the social circle of the British merchants and traders of the area.[citation needed]
In 1868, Leonowens was on leave for her health in England and had been negotiating a return to the court on better terms when Mongkut fell ill and died. The King mentioned Leonowens and her son in his will, though they did not receive a legacy. The new monarch, fifteen-year-old Chulalongkorn, who succeeded his father, wrote Leonowens a warm letter of thanks for her services. He did not invite her to resume her post, but they corresponded amicably for many years.[38] At the age of 27, Louis Leonowens returned to Siam and was granted a commission of Captain in the Royal Cavalry. Chulalongkorn made reforms for which his former tutor claimed some of the credit, including the abolition of the practice of prostration before the royal person. However, many of those same reforms were goals that had been established by his father.[citation needed]
Literary career
By 1869, Leonowens was in New York City, where she briefly opened a school for girls in the
There have also been claims of fabrication: the likelihood of the argument over slavery, for example, when King Mongkut was for 27 years a Buddhist monk and later abbot, before ascending to the throne. It is thought that his religious training and vocation would never have permitted the views expressed by Leonowens's cruel, eccentric and self-indulgent monarch. Even the title of her memoir is inaccurate, as she was neither English nor did she work as a governess:[43] Her task was to teach English, not to educate and care for the royal children comprehensively. Leonowens claimed to have spoken Thai fluently, but the examples of that language presented in her books are unintelligible, even if one allows for clumsy transcription.[44]
Leonowens was a feminist, and in her writings she tended to focus on what she saw as the subjugated status of Siamese women, including those sequestered within the Nang Harm, or royal harem. She emphasised that although Mongkut had been a forward-looking ruler, he had desired to preserve customs such as prostration and sexual slavery that seemed unenlightened and degrading. The sequel, Romance of the Harem (1873),[45] incorporates tales based on palace gossip, including the king's alleged torture and execution of one of his concubines, Tuptim. The story lacks independent corroboration and is dismissed as out of character for the king by some critics.[46] A great-granddaughter, Princess Vudhichalerm Vudhijaya (b. 21 May 1934), stated in a 2001 interview, "King Mongkut was in the monk's hood for 27 years before he was king. He would never have ordered an execution. It is not the Buddhist way." She added that the same Tuptim was her grandmother and had married Chulalongkorn as one of his minor wives.[47] Moreover, there were no dungeons below the Grand Palace or anywhere else in Bangkok as the high ground-water level would not allow this. Nor are there any accounts of a public burning by other foreigners staying in Siam during the same period as Leonowens.[48]
While in the United States, Leonowens also earned much-needed money through popular lecture tours. At venues such as the house of Mrs. Sylvanus Reed in
Canada and Germany
In 1878, Leonowens's daughter Avis Annie Crawford Connybeare married Thomas Fyshe, a
Having returned to Halifax, she again became involved in women's education, and was a
On her way back to Canada, she met her son Louis again, after nineteen years of separation. He had returned to
Anna Leonowens met Chulalongkorn again when both visited London in 1897, thirty years after she had left Siam. During this audience, the king took the opportunity to express his thanks in person, but he also voiced his dismay at the inaccuracies in Leonowens's books. According to Leonowens' granddaughter Anna Fyshe, who had accompanied her, the king asked: "why did you write such a wicked book about my father King Mongkut? You know that you have made him utterly ridiculous". In response, according to Fyshe, Leonowens insisted that she had written "the whole truth" and that Mongkut had indeed been "a ridiculous and a cruel, wicked man".[61] With her granddaughter Anna, Leonowens stayed in Leipzig, Germany, until 1901. She studied Sanskrit and classical Indian literature with the renowned Indology professor Ernst Windisch of the Leipzig University, while her granddaughter studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music.[62][63]
In 1901, she moved to Montreal, Quebec, where she lectured Sanskrit at McGill University. She delivered her last lecture at the age of 78.[64] Anna Leonowens died on 19 January 1915, at 83 years of age.[65] She was interred in Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. The headstone identifies her as the "Beloved Wife of Major Thomas Lorne Leonowens", despite her husband never having risen beyond the rank of paymaster sergeant.[66]
In popular culture
Landon had, however, created the iconic image of Leonowens, and "in the mid-20th century she came to personify the eccentric Victorian female traveler".[70] The novel was adapted as a hit musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, The King and I (1951), starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner, which ran 1,246 performances on Broadway[71] and was also a hit in London and on tour. In 1956, a film version was released, with Deborah Kerr starring in the role of Leonowens and Brynner reprising his role as the king. Brynner starred in many revivals until his death in 1985.[72]
The humorous depiction of Mongkut as a polka-dancing despot, as well as the king's and Anna's apparent romantic feelings for each other, is condemned as disrespectful in Thailand, where the Rodgers and Hammerstein film and musical were banned by the government. The 1946 film version of Anna and the King of Siam, starring Rex Harrison as Mongkut and Irene Dunne as Anna, was allowed to be shown in Thailand, although it was banned in newly independent India as an inaccurate insult by Westerners to an Eastern king. In 1950, the Thai government did not permit the film to be shown for the second time in Thailand. The books Romance in the Harem and An English Governess at the Siamese Court were not banned in Thailand. There were even Thai translations of these books by Ob Chaivasu, a Thai humor writer.[citation needed]
During a visit to the United States in 1960, the monarch of Thailand, King Bhumibol (a great-grandson of Mongkut), and his entourage explained[73] that from what they could gather from the reviews of the musical, the characterisation of Mongkut seemed "90 percent exaggerated. My great-grandfather was really quite a mild and nice man."[74] Years later, during her 1985 visit to New York, Bhumibol's wife, Queen Sirikit, went to see the Broadway musical at the invitation of Yul Brynner.[75] The then ambassador of Thailand to the U.S. gave another reason for Thailand's disapproval of The King and I: its ethno-centric attitude and its barely hidden insult to the whole Siamese nation by portraying its people as childish and inferior to the Westerners.[citation needed]
In 1972,
Leonowens appears as a character in Paul Marlowe's novel Knights of the Sea, in which she travels from Halifax to Baddeck in 1887 to take part in a campaign to promote women's suffrage during a by-election.[citation needed]
Later research
Leonowens kept the actual facts of her early life a closely guarded secret throughout her life, and never disclosed them to anybody, including her family.[79] They were uncovered by researchers long after her death; their scrutiny began with her writings, especially following the popularity of the musical's 1956 film adaptation. D. G. E. Hall, writing in his 1955 book A History of South-East Asia, commented that Leonowens "was gifted with more imagination than insight", and from 1957 to 1961 A. B. Griswold published several articles and a monograph sharply criticizing her depictions of King Mongkut and Siam, writing that "she would seize on a lurid story that appealed to her... remove it from its context and transpose it to Bangkok in the 1860's; and... re-write it with a wealth of circumstantial detail". Moffat noted in his biography of King Mongkut that Leonowens "carelessly leaves proof of her transposed plagiarism".[80]
The fact that Leonowens's claimed birth in Caernarfon was fabricated was first uncovered by W. S. Bristowe, an arachnologist and frequent visitor to Thailand, who was researching a biography of her son Louis. Bristowe failed to locate Louis's certificate of birth in London (as claimed by Anna), prompting further research that led to him identifying her origins in India.[81] His findings were published in the 1976 book Louis and the King of Siam, and later writers have expanded on this line of research, including Leslie Smith Dow in Anna Leonowens: A Life Beyond The King and I (1991) and Susan Kepner in her 1996 paper "Anna (and Margaret) and the King of Siam".[79] More recent full-length scholarly biographies by Susan Morgan (Bombay Anna, 2008) and Alfred Habegger (Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens, Schoolmistress at the Court of Siam, 2014) brought widespread attention to Leonowens's actual life story.[82]
See also
- Aisin-Gioro Puyi the last emperor of China. His story was also dramatised in films such as The Last Emperor.
- Joseph Caulfield James—the English tutor to King Vajiravudh of Siam
- Katharine Carl—an American painter and author at the court of the Empress Dowager Cixi of China
- Siamese cuisine at the Ayutthaya court, some of them influenced by Portuguese cuisine.
Notes
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 417.
- ^ Morgan, Bombay Anna, pp. 23–25, 240–242.
- ^ a b Morgan, Bombay Anna, p. 29.
- ^ "findmypast.co.uk". search.findmypast.co.uk.
- ^ Morgan, Bombay Anna, p. 30.
- ^ Morgan, Bombay Anna, pp. 20, 241.
- ^ Morgan, Bombay Anna, pp. 23–24, 28.
- ^ Morgan, Bombay Anna, p. 23.
- ^ "Caernarfon website". Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 32.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. pp. 13, 42–43.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 42.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 57.
- ^ Morgan (2008). Bombay Anna. p. 51.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 62.
- ^ Morgan (2008). Bombay Anna. pp. 51–52.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 226.
- ^ Morgan (2008). Bombay Anna. p. 52.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. pp. 60–71.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 76.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 53.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. pp. 55–56.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 88.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 96.
- ^ Thomas's date of birth was recorded at his baptism as 24 January 1853. (Register of Baptisms, Wesley Church, Perth, Acc. 1654A, Battye Library, Perth, baptism no. 150, 1 May 1853.)
- ^ Habbegger, Alfred and Foley, Gerard. Anna and Thomas Leonowens in Western Australia, 1853–1857, State Records Office of Western Australia, March 2010.
- ^ a b Habbegger, Alfred and Foley, Gerard. Anna and Thomas Leonowens in Western Australia, 1853–1857, State Records Office of Western Australia, March 2010, pp. 16–19.
- ^ The Inquirer (Perth), 22 March 1854, p. 2.
- ^ The birth certificate of Avis Leonowens cited her mother's name as "Harriette Annie Leonowens", née Edwards. (Register of Births, Western Australia, no. 2583, 1854.)
- ^ Habbegger, Alfred and Foley, Gerard. Anna and Thomas Leonowens in Western Australia, 1853–1857, State Records Office of Western Australia, March 2010, p. 20.
- Port Gregory, as Lynton had not yet been gazetted. His mother's name was recorded as "Harriet Leonowens", née Edwards. (Register of Births, Western Australia, 1856, no. 3469.)
- ^ a b Habbegger, Alfred and Foley, Gerard. Anna and Thomas Leonowens in Western Australia, 1853–1857, State Records Office of Western Australia, March 2010, pp. 21–24.
- ^ Habbegger, Alfred and Foley, Gerard. Anna and Thomas Leonowens in Western Australia, 1853–1857, State Records Office of Western Australia, March 2010, p. 24.
- ^ a b Loos, Tamara. "Review of Bombay Anna... by Susan Morgan, Journal of Historical Biography, vol 5 (Spring 2009), pp. 146–152
- ^ Cemeteries of Penang & Perak by Alan Harfield. British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia, 1987.
- ^ Morgan (2008). Bombay Anna. pp. 1, 70–73.
- ^ "Getting to Know 'Anna and the King of Siam': History, Books and Photos". earlybirdbooks.com. 29 November 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
- ^ "Important Trifles", The Washington Post (15 May 1887), p. 4.
- ^ 'September Magazines', The New York Times (2 September 1872), p. 2.
- ^ Anna Leonowens (1870) The English Governess at the Siamese Court, Fields, Osgood and Co., Boston
- ^ Henry Maxwell, Letter to the Editor: "The King and I", The Times (19 October 1953), p. 3, col. F.
- ^ Direck Jayanama, Letter to the Editor: "'The King and I' Foreign Policy of a Siamese Ruler", The Times (26 October 1953), p. 11, col. F.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 4.
- ^ William Warren (2002). Who Was Anna Leonowens?. p. 86.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ Anna Leonowens (1873) Romance of the Harem, James R. Osgood and Co., Boston
- ^ Erlanger, Steven (7 April 1996). "A Confection Built on a Novel Built on a Fabrication". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
- ^ Nancy Dunne, "'Life as a royal is not for me': A Thai princess tells Nancy Dunne the truth about 'The King and I' and how she prefers a simple life in the US", Financial Times (25 August 2001), p. 7.
- ^ William Warren (2002). Who Was Anna Leonowens?. pp. 86–87.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ a b "Mrs. Leonowens' First Lecture", The New York Times (20 October 1874), p. 4.
- ^ "Amusements", The New York Times (31 October 1871), p. 4.
- ^ "Lectures and Meetings to Come", The New York Times (16 November 1874), p. 8.
- ^ "A Boston Letter", Independent (10 October 1872), p. 6.
- S2CID 154816549.
- ^ a b Morgan (2008). Bombay Anna. p. 186.
- ^ "Biography – EDWARDS, ANNA HARRIETTE – Volume XIV (1911–1920) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". Biographi.ca. 24 August 1922. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
- ^ "Classified Ad 10 – No Title", The New York Times (6 October 1880), p. 7.
- ^ "Classified Ad 21 – No Title", The New York Times (13 October 1880), p. 9.
- ^ Hao-Han Helen Yang (2008). Sue Thomas (ed.). Authorising the Self: Race, Religion and the Role of the Scholar in Anna Leonowens' The English Governess at the Siamese Court (1870). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 33.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ Dagg, Anne Innis (2001). The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books. Wilfried Laurier University Press. p. 167.
- ^ "Second times the charm - Louis T. Leonowens". Expat Life in Thailand. 8 April 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 354.
- ^ Morgan (2008). Bombay Anna. pp. 53, 203.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. pp. 8, 90.
- ^ John Gullick (1995). Adventurous Women in South-East Asia: Six Lives. Oxford University Press. p. 142.
- ^ "Deaths", The Times (21 January 1915); p. 1; col A.
- ^ Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens. p. 72.
- JSTOR 1225180.
- ^ "Southeast Asian Collection, Asian Division, Library of Congress". Loc.gov. 20 August 2012. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
- ^ Mongkut, the King of Siam Entire text online at the Internet Archive.
- ^ Riding, Alan (19 August 2004). "Globe-Trotting Englishwomen Who Helped Map the World". The New York Times. p. E1.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (12 April 1996). "Once Again, The Taming of a Despot". The New York Times. p. C1.
- ISBN 0-7864-2461-3.
- ^ 'King's Ears Won't Hear Songs from "King and I"', The Washington Post (28 June 1960), p. C1.
- ^ Marguerite Higgins, "Siam King Found Shy And Welfare-Minded", The Washington Post (30 August 1951), p. B11.
- ^ Archived copy at the Library of Congress (30 September 2001).
- ^ Lawrence Meyer, "Court And 'The King'", The Washington Post (21 November 1972), p. B2.
- ISBN 978-0-31308-373-0
- ^ "Thailand bans 'Anna and the King'", (3 January 2000) Asian Economic News, Retrieved 29 August 2008
- ^ a b Chantasingh, Chalermsri (2006). "The Power of the Auteur: The Case of the Anna Myth (1870-1999)". Journal of the Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University. 28 (Special issue 2006): 74–106.
- ISBN 9780820449050.
- ISBN 9781932361803.
- ^ Reynolds, E. Bruce (29 September 2014). "Review of Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens". New Mandala. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
References
- Bristowe, W. S. Louis and the King of Siam, Chatto & Windus, 1976, ISBN 0-7011-2164-5
- Dow, Leslie Smith. Anna Leonowens: A Life Beyond The King and I, Pottersfield Press, 1992, ISBN 0-919001-69-6
- Alfred Habegger (2014). Masked: The Life of Anna Leonowens, Schoolmistress at the Court of Siam. University of Wisconsin Press.
- Habegger, Alfred and Foley, Gerard. Anna and Thomas Leonowens in Western Australia, 1853–1857, State Records Office of W. Australia, Occasional Paper, March 2010
- Morgan, Susan. Bombay Anna: The Real Story and Remarkable Adventures of the King and I Governess, University of California Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-520-25226-4
- ISBN 974-8298-12-4
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Works by Anna Leonowens at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Anna Leonowens at Internet Archive
- Works by Anna Leonowens at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by Anna Leonowens at Google Books
- Louis T. Leonowens (Thailand) Ltd., the company founded by Leonowens's son
- (Thai) "Anna Leonowens: Who says she's a compulsive liar?" – Art and Culture Magazine
- (Thai) ""Letter from 'King Mongkut' to 'Anna' from To Dear and the case of 'Son Glin'."". Archived from the original on 19 March 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2006. Art and Culture Magazine, English translation here.
- (Thai) "King Mongkut set up 'secret mission' disguising Sir John and Anna, hid Laos in Khmer" – Art and Culture Magazine
- (Thai) "King Mongkut's letters to Anna: When Madame Teacher plays political negotiator" – Art and Culture Magazine