Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War

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Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War is a 1930 novel by Evadne Price under the pseudonym "Helen Zenna Smith". The semi-biographical account of an ambulance driver provides female insights to the horrors of World War I. Not So Quiet criticizes nationalism, masculinity in women, and the social, physical, and psychological effects of the war upon England's youth.

Price was originally asked by publisher Albert E. Marriott to compose a spoof of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.^[1] Instead, she wrote a serious work, based on the (now lost) diaries of Winifred Young, an ambulance driver who served in France during the war.^[1][2]

Legacy[]

In October 1930, a play based on the book premiered at the Empire Theatre on Broadway. It was directed by Chester Erskine, with Katharine Alexander playing a calloused and disillusioned ambulance driver, and Warren William a physiologically damaged officer. The two fell in love, and got into a relationship that was ultimately doomed. The production was only modestly successful, as the start of the Great Depression made audiences prefer lighter, more diverting entertainment.^[3]

Price wrote four sequels to Not So Quiet… under the Smith pseudonym between 1931 and 1934, but they were not as popular as the first, leaving the book as "a victim of its own success".^[1]

Sources[]

Citations

Editions

• Smith, Helen Zenna (1930), Stepdaughters of War, New York: E.P. Dutton, OCLC 4998092
• Smith, Helen Zenna (1931), Not So Quiet…, London: George Newnes, OCLC 504714270
• Smith, Helen Zenna (1988), Not So Quiet... Stepdaughters of War, London: Virago Modern Classics, ISBN 9780860688501
• Smith, Helen Zenna (1989), Not So Quiet...Stepdaughters of War, New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, ISBN 0-935312-82-X

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