The Pride of Amanda McKittrick Ros

Amanda McKittrick Ros, born Anna Margaret Ross, was a schoolteacher and author known for her... unique prose. Her husband financed the publication of her first novel, Irene Iddesleigh, as a gift for their tenth wedding anniversary.

There are many ways to describe her writing style. Florid. Overwrought. So purple it's almost black. Rather than use a three word phrase, she'd use ten or more to express the same idea, using words dredged from the deepest bowels of the dictionary. I guess she thought alliteration was gold, leading to sentences like,

"Cast your sympathy on the chill waves of troubled waters; fling it on the oases of futurity; dash it against the rock of gossip; or, better still, allow it to remain within the false and faithless bosom of buried scorn."

Despite her love of vocabulary, elements like plot, character, or logic were optional. It's not surprising her work wasn't received well. Mark Twain called her Queen & Empress of the Hogwash Guild, and the likes of C.S. Lewis and Tolkein would take turns reading her work aloud, seeing how long the reader could last without laughing.

McKittrick Ros was not discouraged. In her mind, her detractors lacked the intelligence to understand her brilliance. They were envious of her overkill style of prose, and of the insights she apparently revealed. She fully expected her work to be discussed "at the end of a thousand years."

I don't think she was a good writer. Just reading one of her sentences boggles me. I can't imagine getting through a paragraph of her prose. That she was a teacher before she became a writer makes me wonder what kind of composition her students her students learned.

McKittrick Ros is still worthy of admiration. How many authors come close to the level of confidence she carried? No matter who or how many made fun of her work, her pen kept on moving. She stayed true to her literary vision, continuing the florid prose she loved and few understood.

When our own inner critics won't shut up, and a mean sentence of so-called "criticism" can ruin our day, let's remember McKittrick Ros. Let us borrow some of her powerful will, though not her writing prowess.

First edition of her debut novel