You are here

Duffield, Dorothy Dean (Anne) Tate

Main entryDuffield, Dorothy Dean (Anne) Tate
Birth placeWest Orange, Essex, New Jersey, USA
Birth date20 November 1889
Death placeMarlborough, Wiltshire, England
Death date11 November 1976
Identifier0269
Birth nameDorothy Dean Tate
Alternate namesAnne Duffield
Married nameDuffield
Marital statusmarried
Religious affiliationMethodist; Anglican
BiographyDorothy Dean Tate (1893-1976) was born in Orange, New Jersey where her father was engaged in electrical research; Alfred Orde Tate later documented his work as Thomas Edison's secretary in EDISON'S OPEN DOOR. Dorothy's went to a private girls' school in Toronto and then to Paris where she attended the Sorbonne. She published her first novel, THE STORY OF YUKU (1910) in Toronto when she was seventeen, but did not publish again after her 1922 marriage to Edgar Willoughby Duffield (c1886-1965). In 1928, after returning to live in London, she resurfaced in print as "Anne Duffield," popular writer of romances set in exotic locales. Dorothy became so identified with "Anne" that many reference works list her name as Anne, unaware of the pseudonym. Her lifetime output amounted to more than fifty books, many issued under multiple titles. Dorothy made several visits home to her family in Toronto, and died in England in 1976.
TravelToronto (to visit father), 1928; New York (via Liverpool), 1929
ResidencesOrange, New Jersey (1889); Lindsay, Ontario (1901); Toronto, Ontario (1906-1910); Paris, France; London, England (-1912); Toronto, Ontario (1912); London, England (1928, 1929); Wiltshire, England (-1976)
Geographic regionsOntario
Primary genresfiction (popular)
Booksmore than 50 titles; for a complete list see CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS— PERMANENT SERIES vol. I.
Father's nameAlfred Orde Tate
Life dates of fatherc1864, Peterborough, Ontario - after 1924
Father's noteelectrical researcher and inventor, especially in Victorian cinematic development; Thomas Edison's secretary; author of EDISON'S OPEN DOOR; travelled extensively during late 1910s and 1920s
Mother's nameEliza H. ("Bessie") Dean
Life dates of mother23 July 1862, Ontario - after 1920
Mother's noteDaughter of Hon. William W. Dean, County Court Judge of County of Victoria
Spouse 1Edgar Willoughby Duffield
Life dates of spouse 1c1886, Mauritius - 1965, Marlborough, England
Spouse 1 noteOrder of the British Empire, company director
Marriage 1 date19 May 1921
Marriage 1 placeSt Martin, London, England
Biographical referencesCONTEMPORARY AUTHORS—PERMANENT SERIES, vol. I; 1901 Census of Canada; Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935; England & Wales, Death Index: 1916-2005; New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957; England & Wales, Marriage Index: 1916-2005; New Jersey, Births and Christenings Index, 1660-1931
Bibliographic referencesWatters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 277-79
Research referencescomplete
Image creditsLine drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia).
CopyrightThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014.