Margaret Landon

Margaret Landon
Margaret Landon
Born Margaret Dorothea Mortenson
September 7, 1903(1903-09-07)
Somers, Wisconsin
Died December 4, 1993(1993-12-04) (aged 90)
Alexandria, Virginia
Education B.A. Wheaton Collgee, Education (1925)
Occupation Writer, Presbyterian missionary
Spouse Kenneth Landon

Margaret Landon (September 7, 1903 – December 4, 1993) was an American writer best remembered for Anna and the King of Siam, her best-selling 1944 novel of the life of Anna Leonowens which eventually sold over a million copies and translated into more than twenty languages. In 1950, Landon sold the musical play rights to Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who created the musical The King and I from her book. A later work, Never Dies the Dream, about her own experiences, appeared in 1949.

Contents

Life

Born Margaret Dorothea Mortenson to Anenus Duabus "A.D." and Adelle Mortensen in Somers, Wisconsin, she was one of three daughters in a devout Methodist family. The family moved to Evanston, Illinois, where she graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1921.

She attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, graduating in 1925. She taught at a school for a year, then married Kenneth Landon, whom she knew from Wheaton, and in 1927 they signed up as Presbyterian missionaries to Thailand.

Between 1927-1937, Landon raised her three children while running a mission school in Trang and read extensively about the country. During her readings, she learned about Anna Leonowens, the late-19th Century governess to the Siamese royal family. When the Landon family returned to America in 1937, she soon began writing articles and then began researching material for a book on Leonowens.

Part of a series on
Protestant
missions to
Southeast Asia
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Adoniram Judson

Background
Christianity
Protestantism
Missions timeline

People
George Boardman
Sarah Hall Boardman
Ann Hasseltine Judson
Francis Mason
Eliza Grew Jones
Emily Chubbuck
Dan Beach Bradley
Eugenio Kincaid
Margaret Landon
Justus Vinton
Calista Vinton

Missionary agencies
London Missionary Society
American Board
Church Missionary Society
Baptist Missionary Society
OMF International
Borneo Evangelical Mission
US Presbyterian Mission

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The family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1942 when Kenneth Landon joined the United States Department of State as an expert adviser on Southeast Asia. In 1947, Kenneth Landon published Southeast Asia, Crossroad of Religion, subsequently reprinted in 1969 and 1974. He also wrote The Chinese in Thailand and Siam in Transition.

Landon's fourth child, Kenneth, Jr., was born in Washington, D.C. He followed the lead of his parents and took up writing about his own field of interest, releasing God of Glory: The Promise of Relationship in 1992.

Margaret Landon was married 67 years. She died in Alexandria, Virginia, December 4, 1993, aged 90, leaving 13 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. She is interred in Wheaton Cemetery in Illinois.

Lawsuit over 1972 TV series Anna and the King

In 1972, Twentieth Century Fox produced a non-musical TV sitcom for CBS based on The King and I film called Anna and the King, with Samantha Eggar taking the part of Anna Leonowens and Yul Brynner reprising his role as the king. Landon charged the producers with "inaccurate and mutilated portrayals" of her literary property and unsuccessfully sued for copyright infringement.[1][2] The series was unsuccessful and was canceled after 13 episodes.

References

  1. ^ Lawrence Meyer, 'Court And “The King”', Washington Post, 21 November 1972, p. B2
  2. ^ Landon v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 384 F. Supp. 450 (S.D.N.Y. 1974), in Donald E. Biederman, Edward P. Pierson, Martin E. Silfen, Janna Glasser, Law and Business of the Entertainment Industries, 5th edition, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2006, pp. 349-356

External links


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  • Margaret Landon — Margaret Dorothea Mortenson, más conocida como Margaret Landon, nacida el 7 de septiembre de 1903 y fallecida el 4 de diciembre de 1993, fue una escritora estadounidense. Debe su fama sobre todo a su novela Ana y el rey de Siam, en la que cuenta… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Margaret Landon — (* 7. September 1903 in Somers, Wisconsin, als Margaret Dorothea Mortenson; † 4. Dezember 1993 in Alexandria, Virginia) war eine US amerikanische Schriftstellerin, die vor allem durch ihren Roman Anna und der König von Siam über das Leben von… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • Dettmer v. Landon — Court United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Full case name Herbert Daniel Dettmer v. Robert Landon, Director of Corrections Date decided September 4, 1986 …   Wikipedia

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