Beryl Markham
Encyclopedia
Beryl Markham was a British-born Kenya
n aviatrix, adventurer, and racehorse trainer. During the pioneer days of aviation, she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. She is now primarily remembered as the author of the memoir West with the Night
.
Markham was born Beryl Clutterbuck in the village of Ashwell
, in the county of Rutland, England, the daughter of Charles Baldwin Clutterbuck and Clara Agnes (Alexander) Clutterbuck (1878–1952). She had an older brother, Richard Alexander Clutterbuck (1900–1942). When she was four years old, her father moved the family to Kenya, which was then British East Africa, purchasing a farm in Njoro
near the Great Rift Valley
. Although her mother disliked the isolation and promptly returned to England, Beryl stayed in Kenya with her father, where she spent an adventurous childhood learning, playing and hunting with the natives. On her family's farm, she developed a knowledge of, and love for horses. As a young adult, she became the first licensed female horse trainer in Kenya.
Impetuous, single-minded and beautiful, Markham was a noted non-conformist, even in a colony known for its colourful eccentrics. During her lifetime she was married three times. She also had an unconcealed 1929 affair with the Duke of Gloucester
, the son of George V
. The Windsors promptly cut the romance short; Hubert Broad
had an affair with Beryl and he was named as the accomplice in the divorce by Mansfield Markham. After her Atlantic crossing, she returned to be with Broad. He was also a great influence in her flying career.
She befriended the Danish writer Karen Blixen
during the years that Blixen was managing her family's coffee farm in the Ngong hills
outside Nairobi
. (In the film rendering of Blixen's memoir, Out of Africa, Markham is represented by an outspoken, horse-riding tomboy named Felicity.) When Blixen's romantic connection with the hunter and pilot Denys Finch Hatton
was winding down, Markham started an affair with him herself. He invited her to tour game lands on what turned out to be his fatal flight, but Markham declined because of a premonition from her flight instructor, Tom Campbell Black
. Sara Wheeler, in her biography of Finch Hatton, notes that she believes stories that Markham was pregnant by him at the time of his crash.
Largely inspired by the British pilot Tom Campbell Black
, with whom she had a long-term affair, she took up flying. She worked for some time as a bush pilot, spotting game animals from the air and signaling their locations to safari
s on the ground. She also mingled with the notorious Happy Valley set
.
, who attempted to fly from Dublin, Ireland to New York City in 1932. Low visibility forced Mollison down in New Brunswick, Canada, but he was still able to claim the Atlantic east-to-west record (a westbound flight requires more endurance, fuel and time than the eastward journey because the craft must travel against the prevailing Atlantic winds).
When Markham decided to take on the Atlantic crossing, no pilot had yet flown non-stop from Europe to New York, and no woman had made the westward flight solo, though several had died trying. Markham hoped to claim both records. On September 4, 1936, she took off from Abingdon, England. After a 20-hour flight, her Vega Gull
, The Messenger, suffered fuel starvation
due to icing of the fuel tank vents, and she crash-landed at Baleine Cove
on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
, Canada
(her flight was, in all likelihood, almost identical in length to Mollison's). In spite of falling short of her goal, Markham had become the first woman to cross the Atlantic east-to-west solo, and the first person to make it from England to North America non-stop. She was celebrated as an aviation pioneer.
Markham chronicled her many adventures in her memoir, West with the Night, published in 1942. Despite strong reviews in the press, the book sold modestly, and then quickly went out of print. After living for many years in the United States, Markham moved back to Kenya in 1952, becoming for a time the most successful horse trainer in the country.
's letters, including one in which Hemingway lavishly praised Markham's writing (and attacked her character):
Intrigued, Gutekunst read West with the Night and became so enamored of Markham's prose that he helped persuade a California publisher, North Point Press, to re-issue the book in 1983. The re-release of the book launched a remarkable final chapter in the life of the eighty-year-old Markham, who was lauded for her three final years as a great author as well as flyer. When found in Kenya by AP East Africa correspondent Barry Shlachter, Markham was living in poverty, and had been badly beaten in a burglary at her house near the Nairobi racetrack, where she still trained thoroughbreds.
The re-publishing of West with the Night provided enough income for her to finish her life in relative comfort. Earlier, she had been supported by a circle of friends and owners of race horses she trained into her 80s. The book became a surprising bestseller, spurred by the 1986 broadcast of a public television documentary about Markham's life, World Without Walls: Beryl Markham's African Memoir, produced by Gutekunst, Shlachter, Joan Saffa, Stephen Talbot and Judy Flannery in collaboration with KQED-TV in San Francisco. Gutekunst and Shlachter had approached the station to cooperate on the documentary, directed by Andrew Maxwell-Hyslop. British actress Diana Quick
was the voice of Markham in readings from her memoir, Shlachter conducted the interviews, which CNN Africa correspondent Gary Streiker filmed for the well-reviewed, award-winning PBS program.
Markham died in Nairobi in 1986. Her short stories were posthumously collected in The Splendid Outcast, with an introduction by Mary S. Lovell
. A tale from West With The Night was excerpted and illustrated by Don Brown as a children's book, The Good Lion. In 1988, CBS aired the biographical miniseries Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun, with Stefanie Powers
in the title role.
According to the 1993 biography, The Lives of Beryl Markham, by Errol Trzebinski
, the book's real author was her third husband, the ghost writer and journalist Raoul Schumacher. Trzebinski also claimed that Beryl Markham had an advance from Houghton Mifflin
to do a book on the famous international jockey Tod Sloan
, which Raoul Schumacher was supposed to write. Apparently Schumacher never did, and she was forced to go it alone, resulting in a manuscript submission that the publisher rejected as worthless, and not from the same person who had written West with the Night. Trzebinski had earlier taken the opposite view when interviewed by Shlachter for the PBS documentary, insisting on camera that only a woman could have written the memoir.
In her biography of Markham, Straight On Till Morning, author Mary S. Lovell, who visited Markham in Nairobi and interviewed her extensively shortly before Markham's death, disputes the claim that Schumacher made substantive contributions to West with the Night. From her research, Lovell concluded that Markham was the sole author, although Schumacher did edit the manuscript; instead, Lovell credits Antoine de Saint Exupéry, another of Markham's lovers, with being the inspiration behind Markham's clear, elegant language and storytelling style.
The International Astronomical Union
has named the impact crater Markham on the planet Venus after her.
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
n aviatrix, adventurer, and racehorse trainer. During the pioneer days of aviation, she became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west. She is now primarily remembered as the author of the memoir West with the Night
West With the Night
West With the Night is a 1942 memoir by Beryl Markham, chronicling her experiences growing up in Kenya , in the early 1900s, leading to a career as a bush pilot there...
.
Markham was born Beryl Clutterbuck in the village of Ashwell
Ashwell, Rutland
Ashwell is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is located about three miles north of Oakham....
, in the county of Rutland, England, the daughter of Charles Baldwin Clutterbuck and Clara Agnes (Alexander) Clutterbuck (1878–1952). She had an older brother, Richard Alexander Clutterbuck (1900–1942). When she was four years old, her father moved the family to Kenya, which was then British East Africa, purchasing a farm in Njoro
Njoro
Njoro is an agricultural town 18 km west south west of Nakuru, Kenya. Njoro is the divisional headquarters of Njoro Division of Nakuru District. It houses the divisional headquarters of the provincial administration and the police.- Brief history :...
near the Great Rift Valley
Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...
. Although her mother disliked the isolation and promptly returned to England, Beryl stayed in Kenya with her father, where she spent an adventurous childhood learning, playing and hunting with the natives. On her family's farm, she developed a knowledge of, and love for horses. As a young adult, she became the first licensed female horse trainer in Kenya.
Impetuous, single-minded and beautiful, Markham was a noted non-conformist, even in a colony known for its colourful eccentrics. During her lifetime she was married three times. She also had an unconcealed 1929 affair with the Duke of Gloucester
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester
The Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester was a soldier and member of the British Royal Family, the third son of George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary....
, the son of George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. The Windsors promptly cut the romance short; Hubert Broad
Hubert Broad
Captain Hubert Standford Broad MBE AFC was an English First World War aviator and notable sports and test pilot.-Early life:Broad was born in Watford on 18 May 1897 the son of Thomas and Amelia Broad. In 1901 when Broad was three the family were living at Aston Lodge, St Johns Road in Watford his...
had an affair with Beryl and he was named as the accomplice in the divorce by Mansfield Markham. After her Atlantic crossing, she returned to be with Broad. He was also a great influence in her flying career.
She befriended the Danish writer Karen Blixen
Karen Blixen
Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke , , née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen. She also wrote under the pen names Osceola and Pierre Andrézel...
during the years that Blixen was managing her family's coffee farm in the Ngong hills
Ngong Hills
The Ngong Hills are peaks in a ridge along the Great Rift Valley, located southwest near Nairobi, in southern Kenya. The word "Ngong" is a Maasai word meaning "knuckles"...
outside Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
. (In the film rendering of Blixen's memoir, Out of Africa, Markham is represented by an outspoken, horse-riding tomboy named Felicity.) When Blixen's romantic connection with the hunter and pilot Denys Finch Hatton
Denys Finch Hatton
Denys George Finch Hatton was a big-game hunter, and the lover of Karen Blixen , who wrote about him in her autobiographical book Out of Africa first published in 1937...
was winding down, Markham started an affair with him herself. He invited her to tour game lands on what turned out to be his fatal flight, but Markham declined because of a premonition from her flight instructor, Tom Campbell Black
Tom Campbell Black
Tom Campbell Black, was a famous English aviator.He was the son of Alice Jean McCullough and Hugh Milner Black. He became a world famous aviator when he and C. W. A...
. Sara Wheeler, in her biography of Finch Hatton, notes that she believes stories that Markham was pregnant by him at the time of his crash.
Largely inspired by the British pilot Tom Campbell Black
Tom Campbell Black
Tom Campbell Black, was a famous English aviator.He was the son of Alice Jean McCullough and Hugh Milner Black. He became a world famous aviator when he and C. W. A...
, with whom she had a long-term affair, she took up flying. She worked for some time as a bush pilot, spotting game animals from the air and signaling their locations to safari
Safari
A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...
s on the ground. She also mingled with the notorious Happy Valley set
Happy Valley set
The Happy Valley set was a group of privileged British colonials living in the Happy Valley region of the Wanjohi Valley,near the Aberdare mountain range, in the colonies of Kenya and Uganda during the 1920s - 1940s...
.
Record flight
Markham is often described as "the first person" to fly the Atlantic east to west in a solo non-stop flight, but that record belongs to Scottish pilot Jim MollisonJim Mollison
James Allan Mollison was a famous Scottish pioneer aviator who set many records during the rapid development of aviation in the 1930s.-Early years:...
, who attempted to fly from Dublin, Ireland to New York City in 1932. Low visibility forced Mollison down in New Brunswick, Canada, but he was still able to claim the Atlantic east-to-west record (a westbound flight requires more endurance, fuel and time than the eastward journey because the craft must travel against the prevailing Atlantic winds).
When Markham decided to take on the Atlantic crossing, no pilot had yet flown non-stop from Europe to New York, and no woman had made the westward flight solo, though several had died trying. Markham hoped to claim both records. On September 4, 1936, she took off from Abingdon, England. After a 20-hour flight, her Vega Gull
Percival Vega Gull
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Ellison, Norman H. Percivals Aircraft . Chalford, Stroud, UK: Chalford Publishing Company, 1997. ISBN 0-7524-0774-0....
, The Messenger, suffered fuel starvation
Fuel Starvation
Fuel starvation and fuel exhaustion are problems that can affect internal combustion engines fuelled by either diesel, kerosene, petroleum or any other combustible liquid or gas. If no fuel is available for an engine to burn, it cannot function...
due to icing of the fuel tank vents, and she crash-landed at Baleine Cove
Baleine, Nova Scotia
Baleine is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality on Cape Breton Island...
on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia
Cape Breton County, officially, County Cape Breton, is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island.Taking its name from Cape Breton, the most easterly point of the island which was called after the Bretons of Brittany, this municipality has what is probably the oldest...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
(her flight was, in all likelihood, almost identical in length to Mollison's). In spite of falling short of her goal, Markham had become the first woman to cross the Atlantic east-to-west solo, and the first person to make it from England to North America non-stop. She was celebrated as an aviation pioneer.
Markham chronicled her many adventures in her memoir, West with the Night, published in 1942. Despite strong reviews in the press, the book sold modestly, and then quickly went out of print. After living for many years in the United States, Markham moved back to Kenya in 1952, becoming for a time the most successful horse trainer in the country.
Rediscovery
Markham's memoir lingered in obscurity until 1982, when California restaurateur George Gutekunst read a collection of Ernest HemingwayErnest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
's letters, including one in which Hemingway lavishly praised Markham's writing (and attacked her character):
Intrigued, Gutekunst read West with the Night and became so enamored of Markham's prose that he helped persuade a California publisher, North Point Press, to re-issue the book in 1983. The re-release of the book launched a remarkable final chapter in the life of the eighty-year-old Markham, who was lauded for her three final years as a great author as well as flyer. When found in Kenya by AP East Africa correspondent Barry Shlachter, Markham was living in poverty, and had been badly beaten in a burglary at her house near the Nairobi racetrack, where she still trained thoroughbreds.
The re-publishing of West with the Night provided enough income for her to finish her life in relative comfort. Earlier, she had been supported by a circle of friends and owners of race horses she trained into her 80s. The book became a surprising bestseller, spurred by the 1986 broadcast of a public television documentary about Markham's life, World Without Walls: Beryl Markham's African Memoir, produced by Gutekunst, Shlachter, Joan Saffa, Stephen Talbot and Judy Flannery in collaboration with KQED-TV in San Francisco. Gutekunst and Shlachter had approached the station to cooperate on the documentary, directed by Andrew Maxwell-Hyslop. British actress Diana Quick
Diana Quick
-Life:Quick was born in London, England. She grew up in Dartford, Kent, the third of a dentist's four children. She was educated at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Kent. She was greatly aided by her English teacher, Miss Davis, who encouraged her to pursue acting...
was the voice of Markham in readings from her memoir, Shlachter conducted the interviews, which CNN Africa correspondent Gary Streiker filmed for the well-reviewed, award-winning PBS program.
Markham died in Nairobi in 1986. Her short stories were posthumously collected in The Splendid Outcast, with an introduction by Mary S. Lovell
Mary S. Lovell
Mary S. Lovell is an English writer and has written biographies of Beryl Markham, Amelia Earhart, Jane Digby, Richard Francis Burton, Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, the Mitford Girls and Bess of Hardwick...
. A tale from West With The Night was excerpted and illustrated by Don Brown as a children's book, The Good Lion. In 1988, CBS aired the biographical miniseries Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun, with Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart.-Early life:...
in the title role.
Authorship controversy
Questions were raised over time as to whether Markham was the real, or sole, author of West with the Night, not least because Markham never repeated her accomplishment with a second book of similar length, scope or beauty. The writing style has been linked with various writings by a contemporary writer of the time, Thomas Baker, who was also rumored to be her lover. Her publishing accomplishments for the rest of her life were limited to a handful of short stories.According to the 1993 biography, The Lives of Beryl Markham, by Errol Trzebinski
Errol Trzebinski
Errol Trzebinski is an author of books on prominent individuals in the history of colonial Kenya including Silence Will Speak: A Study of the Life of Denys Finch Hatton and His Relationship With Karen Blixen ; The Kenya Pioneers: The Frontiersmen of an Adopted Land ; The Lives of Beryl Markham: Out...
, the book's real author was her third husband, the ghost writer and journalist Raoul Schumacher. Trzebinski also claimed that Beryl Markham had an advance from Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
to do a book on the famous international jockey Tod Sloan
Tod Sloan (jockey)
James Forman "Tod" Sloan was an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.-Early life and U.S. racing career:...
, which Raoul Schumacher was supposed to write. Apparently Schumacher never did, and she was forced to go it alone, resulting in a manuscript submission that the publisher rejected as worthless, and not from the same person who had written West with the Night. Trzebinski had earlier taken the opposite view when interviewed by Shlachter for the PBS documentary, insisting on camera that only a woman could have written the memoir.
In her biography of Markham, Straight On Till Morning, author Mary S. Lovell, who visited Markham in Nairobi and interviewed her extensively shortly before Markham's death, disputes the claim that Schumacher made substantive contributions to West with the Night. From her research, Lovell concluded that Markham was the sole author, although Schumacher did edit the manuscript; instead, Lovell credits Antoine de Saint Exupéry, another of Markham's lovers, with being the inspiration behind Markham's clear, elegant language and storytelling style.
The International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
has named the impact crater Markham on the planet Venus after her.
External links
- Beryl Markham page at www.karenblixen.com.
- New York Times review of World Without Walls: Beryl Markham's African Memoir
- New York Times review of Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun
- Biographer Mary S. Lovell's page for The Splendid Outcast